Last Rose of Summer
by silkechan
Summary: After Akihito and Asami left Hong Kong, FeiLong remained with a reign to rebuilt and a ripping sense of loss. Charatcter: FeiLong, Yoh, Tao and some OC
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

**The man walked, heading into the night. The wind that blew harshly around him was raising a thin, bluish dust, impalpable as ash. He had his arms lined along his body and a white rose in his right hand. Anyone who knew him and had seen him with that flower in his hand probably would have remained astonished at first, and then they probably would have been amused, snickering even.**

**The man narrowed his eyes. His expression did not change much, but for a moment an almost amused flash lighted in his black eyes.**

**Well...**

**Probably** **anyone who knew him, seeing him with that flower in his hand, would have shot at him, trying to take advantage of the situation while thinking that he had provided for himself the flower for his very own burial. Besides, no one who knew him could be considered his friend.**

**The last piece of the sun that was about to be swallowed by the sea, shone with an unreal light, and projected the man's shadow far away, like a dark wound that cut in two the bleak clearing. After few more steps, he stopped in front of a building, whose dark profile was hardly distinguishable against the background of the night. If it had been in the day, the sunlight, less merciful than the night's darkness, would have revealed with cruelty to his eyes those walls, scraped by the passing of the time, and blackened by the fire.**

**Many years before, in fact, the ardent flames have devoured those walls and what they contained, and he almost thought to be able to smell again the acrid odour of the ash and could feel it drying up his throat.**

**The man walked around what remained of the house: of the main wall face, the entrance of the house. There were left standing only the frames of the entry's door. The door itself was burnt and the walls around, weakened by the heat, obviously damaged beyond repair: then the time had done the rest and now they were nothing but a pile of rubble on the ground.**

**Almost nine years had passed by, the man thought, since he had been in this place that last, damned time. Or to be precise, since he had been there** **_physically_****. In the years to come, he had returned there so many times with the memory, especially those nights in which his work had forced****him to do nothing but** **_wait_****, for hours and hours in front of a** **_closed_** **door, and watch through the eyes of the night.**

**"****_Just like I'm doing now",_****he thought****_._****Because the night finally arose****and he could only stare at the world through the filter of the bluish light of a nearly-full moon. In front of him was a door in the middle of an empty space.**

**So ironic.**

**"****_And significant"_****, he added.**

**He went** **through** **the "entrance door," because to go through the wall that is no longer there and to walk on the rubble, the pieces of burned beams and the junk that the last nine years had dumped in that place seemed rude to him.**

**The man headed toward what once was a box room, a hiding place into the cavity of a wall. A hiding place that didn't accomplished its task, unfortunately.**

**He laid the flower on the ground, white against the black ash** **and against the black of the night. A sole flower for two people that were no more in this world, two beings that had been a single person. A woman, who had lived too short, and a child who was never born.**

**His wife and son.**

**He remained at the spot to watch the rose, or rather to imagine it, now that it was swallowed by the darkness, while his lips began to murmur something, without emitting any sound. It was not a prayer, and anyway, no one would have listened to the prayer of a murderer, especially in favour of two innocent**** souls which certainly had yet earned their place in an unforeseen heaven, where someone like him could never reach them again.**

**He was simply talking with QiuYue (****秋月****= autumn moon), as he had done so many times when she was alive, and as he had never done with no one else since then.**

**Anyone of those who knew him in those later years could almost swear that he knew little more than the words "Yes, master," and probably they were right.**

**After the death of QuiYue, a strange torpor had taken possession of him, and only thanks to a man, and to the debt of gratitude that kept him tied to that man, he had been forced to** **_live_** **and had not been sucked in by the black hole that had grown inside of him. That man had given him a task and, thanks to him, he had met a new reason to live, beautiful and terrible. And because of him he had now lost it, terrible and beautiful.**

**It was** **about this that the man, swallowed by the dark, was talking to his dead wife: ".. But despite, this time, I tried to act in the exact opposite way compared to the past, QuiYue, in the end I made the same mistake again, and I lost my dream. Again...," He concluded.**

**After a few minutes of silence, he whispered a few words, and then he took his leave from them, and went back ... although he had nothing to return to.**

**-**  
**Strands and strands slipped in the air to form a veil of black silk in front of his eyes. FeiLong, with his natural-born gracefulness, moved his long tapering fingers, and almost caressing his own cheek with the fingertips, brushed aside with the back of his hand, his hair behind his back. They hovered in the air for an instant and then, with moves as unrestricting as a whip, they fell down on the shiny white silk of his cheongsam. He raised his eyes from the book he had just opened and laying his chin on the palm of his hand, then turned them toward the window.**

**In his private apartment, at the top floor of a luxury skyscraper in the pulsing heart of Hong Kong, the windows covered the entire walls: from there his rule on the city not only felt real, it also became** **_physica_****l.**

**But not in that room, connected to his office.**

**There, the window was a small piece of late autumn sky lost among hundreds of books.**  
**FeiLong's library was full of old and valuable books, first editions, collectible items, ancient texts witnesses of the past ages: books to enjoy with your fingers and eyes, caressing them in admiration, and smelling the** **_time_** **among their pages. And then there were the paperback versions, to enjoy in reading, underlining, using and consuming them in the little free time that the leader of Baishe could afford.**

**Especially lately.**

**Recent weeks were quite convulsed: after Asami and Akihito had left his ship-casino, FeiLong was left with tumultuous thoughts in his heart and a lot of "practical" problems to be resolved, by his hands. The Chinese man sighed, shaking his head.**

**It was more than a month from that night, and many things were now back in their place: he had identified the last pocket of traitors among the Baishe's men and had returned them in a beautiful package, with a** **_blood_****-red ribbon, to Mikhail Arbatov. He reorganized the ranks of his organization, replaced the traitors in their roles, and annihilated a pair of competing drug's syndicates: to make everyone aware of his unchanged strength and power in Hong Kong's underworld, that was a real necessity...**

**But many things still had to be arranged, especially the trust and devotion of his men.**  
**If in the lower ranks of Baishe things were relatively quiet, you could not say so for the higher level: the doubt was about the** **overindulgence he showed to those who had harmed his honour. If he had wanted to get rid of the heads of two competing groups, namely Asami and Arbatov, and of a traitor, Yoh, it would have been very easy,** **_tha_****t night. But he didn't.**

**FeiLong knew very well that the highest levels of his syndicate, for now, had "stayed the judgement" on his** **decisions about the three men. But they were laying in wait for him: he could not make any mistake, or he would lose the Baishe.**

**_And the Baishe is everything he had._**

**The Chinese man sighed... despite it all, the organization was still firmly in his hands: the recent successes, the purges and the show of force were useful to restore the prestige to his command.**

**FeiLong lowered again his eyes on the book on his lap, and caressed with the tip of his fingers the paper's bookmark, a** **_jianzh_****i made by Tao, that he had received as a birthday present. A simple lotus flower cutting in red paper. It marked the page in that book , a page that had been opened for the last time the day before FeiLong's trip to Tokyo, from which he had returned wounded, and with Akihito.**

**Now it was reopened again.**

**And between those two identical gestures, the end of another phase of** **his life. It was not so much having to start again that made him feel so lost, but mainly the** **_ruins_** **that were left inside him. The difficulty to find a "****_reason_****" to live.**

**Seven years earlier, the reason had been** **his hatred for Asami, and now he could see it clearly, his desperate love and his hunger for revenge against the man, that had deceived him and then deserted him.**

**But now?**

**_Now what?_**

**He shook his head again, to chase away these thoughts like tiresome flies , and lengthen his hand toward the jade pencil case on the coffee table. He had always found it very relaxing to refuge himself in the usual small gestures, to soothe his spirit. Gestures like reading a good book and underlining the most interesting paragraphs with a pencil, or also, a cup of good tea.**

**FeiLong was going to ring the little silver bell he had on the desk to claim the attention of the man that was always guarding his door, but** **his hand remained in mid-air. For a moment he had forgotten that now there was no one outside the door.**

**Not anymore.**

**He had not yet appointed a replacement for Yoh. Every time his mind went back on the problem, for some reason the resolution was postponed.**

**Yoh,** **_".. One whose heart was stolen by you ..."_**

**"****_What idiocy,_****" he thought, and pushed the button of the intercom.**

**"Wang, some tea" he said, and without waiting for the obvious answer, he hung up.**


	2. Chapter 2

**_~ Because the night_**

The neon signs flashed in the night, with their violent light so colored, and so cold.  
Yoh walked with his hands in the pockets of a dark coat.  
He didn't have anything to do, and this, for him, was a new "condition", one that he had realized early on it was a condition that did not satisfy him at all.  
There had been another time in his life when he had found himself to have no prospects, no aims and no hope, but at that time, at least, there was a blind despair to keep him company and reminding him, every single time it sank its claws into his heart to tear at it a bit more, that he was alive.  
Painfully alive.  
Desperately alive.  
But Alive.  
And there was the sense of guilt to prevent him from ending it all, because he did not deserve the peace that came with death.  
But now… now what should he do? What the hell should he do?  
Leave Hong Kong and go back to Tokyo as one of Asami's men?  
He did not want that and he could not, even if he did.  
Asami had made it clear that, although he had always served him impeccably, now he could no longer employ him, because now the Yakuza knew that Yoh _belonged_ to someone else. To someone else who was not interested in him or in his services, to someone else that, logically, should kill him as he did with every other traitor. To someone else who, for pity or cruelty, rather decided that he had to remain alive.  
Yoh shook his head, as if he was disagreeing.  
A bitter smile appeared on the man's lips: neither pity, nor cruelty. It was just indifference.  
Yoh took in his coat, because this was the coldest period of year, yet despite this and despite the late hour, there was still much movement on the Hong Kong streets.  
The night flowed in the sexy shops on Temple Street, as it did in the dark alleys of Wan Chai, in the top of Hong Kong's highest mountain, The Peak, as in the thousands of colored lights of Nathan Road, in the skyscrapers above, just as it did in the nightclubs: the exclusive _China Club_, the intimate _Captain Bar_, in the virtual effects of the _Lost City i_n Kowloon, and even in the brothels of Mongkok.  
Yoh slide in the middle of that crowd without losing even a second to consider it; he saw how life was going on without him, that the world would continued to turn around while he was standing still, but he was simply not interested. There was a single person who occupied every corner of his mind and who was not leaving room for anything else.  
A person who was all for him and for whom he was nothing.  
Meanwhile, the sky was beginning to fade above the Temple of Tin Hau, the Goddess of the Sea, in Causeway Bay.  
Once again, Yoh felt that he really should leave Hong Kong, but he could not and did not want to, as well. He could not, because he had no place to go. And he did not want, because he desired to share at least this piece of sky with FeiLong.  
_

FeiLong leaned his hand on the wound on his chest, which was now nothing more than the symbol of useless memories that needed to be erased.  
He lingered for a moment on it and then moved his fingers, until he was able to hear, through them, the regular beat of his own heart. Quiet and light, reminding him that he was still alive.  
Anger.  
That was the thing that he missed since the night he saw Akihito and Asami leave the ship together.  
Watching Asami go away he felt pain, even physical pain, but not anger.  
He had admitted that, even though he was misleading himself by calling his feelings hatred and revenge, they were in fact love and desire, but when he saw Asami leave, and so the last bond with him breaking, he felt loneliness and nostalgia, but not anger.  
A nostalgia that became much deeper as the awareness, that it was not for the man who was embracing Akihito, was rising.  
The nostalgia was for the man who, so long ago, had encouraged him to demand respect from his brother, and approval from his father, and for the man who injured his hand in shielding him.  
Not the man whose icy lips had encountered his on the casino's ship, but the man whose warm and kind mouth kissed him seven years ago, who had dried his tears, and caressed his hair.  
It was not the same man. If that man had ever existed, he could no longer be the same man that now was going away for good .  
Nor was FeiLong the same.  
Whatever he and Asami had become in recent years, they had become that way separately, and anything that they could have been, if things had been different, none of them would have ever discovered it.  
A month had passed since then, and the nights seem longer and longer.  
If it were not for the large number of issues and commitments, he had to settle, FeiLong would not be able to sleep. Most of the time, he collapsed on the bed, exhausted, at the first light of dawn.  
But now that the waters were calmed, and the things in Baishe seemed quiet again, there was no more the tiredness to come and help him.  
If he only could find a "dream", maybe then he could sleep.  
But the dreams seemed finished, beautiful and ugly that they could be .  
Meanwhile, the dawn came, and FeiLong, standing beside the large windows of his bedroom, naked under his unfastened black silk dressing gown, was almost stunned by the appearance of the sun on the horizon.  
The morning surprised even the people in the town: the night birds with the shadows under their eyes, as the women that were carrying the vegetables to the markets, and so the elderly that crowded the parks making the Taijiquan. The golden light of the early day ran on the Chinese hovels and insinuates itself between the walls of the dirty, popular skyscrapers with the facades made of glass and steel in the business district, through the windows of the villas of the rich people that were opening like eyes disturbed by the light.  
FeiLong leaned the palm of his right hand and then his forehead onto the cold glass of the window.  
"And now …?" he whispered, lightly closing his eye eyes.  
The light of the morning, in that cold winter's day, became just a quiet shimmering that transpired between his long curved eyelashes. The color of his coral mouth, that stained the alabaster of his face, became even more red while FeiLong bit his lower lip.  
He would have preferred the anger, would have preferred the hatred, he would have preferred ... anything, but not the "void".  
Was it really so unmentionable for the leader of Baishe, to have that immense desire for comfort, of an embrace, that could rip out for a moment that feeling from his heart?  
Probably it was.  
_

Wang walked quickly toward FeiLong's rooms, with a slightly worried expression.  
He believed, or rather, had hoped that there could be some peace for their organization, at least for a while, and lately things seemed to go exactly in that direction.  
Now, however, in the early morning, several Baishe men, who patrol their territory during the night time, had brought this new problem.  
At first glance it did not seem as though it was anything to worry about, but considering the person involved, the Baishe's man feared that the situation would evolve soon in an unpleasant way.  
Reaching FeiLong's door, he knocked gently and, after receiving permission, he entered the room. The cold December Sun filled the room with his light.  
"Laoban ...," the man said.  
"Problems? "FeiLong's voice, more than irritated by the possibility of bad news, seemed almost relieved.  
Wang nodded in response. The man had worked for Baishe for many years and knew FeiLong -sama since he was a child. Even though the long-haired man had always maintained a certain distance from his men, this had not prevented Wang from making a fairly precise deduction about his master's way of thinking.  
FeiLong was moody, strong, cruel and clever, but he was also a person who thought too much. The worst thing was that FeiLong _had a heart_, and that, in his position, was only a disadvantage.  
Clearly, the idea that there could be new issues to be settled, and so something that could offer a diversion to his thoughts, lured him, rather than was bothersome.  
"Our men have noticed suspicious movements of not yet identified persons in our territory, Laoban. The only thing we know for sure is that they are not foreigners, but Chinese citizens, master."  
"How long they been in _my_ town?" FeiLong asked, with a flat tone, rising from his desk, and taking with him the steaming cup of tea he had in his hands, and went to lean on the window jamb, giving his back to Wang.  
The long black locks, tied carelessly in a low ponytail, were twisting to each other, while reflections of the sun, on that winter morning, lit them with golden nuances, making it seem as though they were almost moving, like magical dark flames.  
"Uhm ... a couple of days, sir, but you had ordered not to be disturbed if not ..."  
"I have not asked for your justifications, Wang, have I?" FeiLong said, dryly. "Any idea about what their aim is? Apart from dying young, of course ...," he added later.  
"It seems that, in these past two days, they have been restricting themselves to seeking information about a certain person, and now they are keeping an eye on him, from a distance, apparently with bad intentions, and..."  
"And may I know who this person is?" The leader of Baishe interrupted him with a bothered tone, pointing on the man's face two stunning eyes that darted with irritation.  
The man, avoiding the eyes of his master, whispered a name, which FeiLong would have preferred not to hear.  
"It is Yoh," he said.

***to be continued


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't understand," said the extremely tall man with an intimidating physique, looking at Wang with questioning eyes and a vexed air. The man's expression was one of a child who tries to interpret something that he does not understand, which was so in contrast with his strong physique, that it almost made Wang smile. Something totally inappropriate in the circumstances.  
"Your task is not to understand, let alone to think. Only to obey!" Wang said, however, with a rather harsh tone.  
The man regained his composure at the words of his superior, including the usual grim air that one could expect from him.  
Kai was a good bodyguard, and a 426*, very useful, but certainly he was an airhead.

He surely didn't know the reason why Liu-sama had ordered them to trace those who were after Yoh, rough them up a bit, and bring them to him so that he could "have a chat" with them. For him, Yoh was a traitor, and his death certainly could not be a problem, on the contrary, it was strange that he was still alive.

That's why a man like Kai would never become a leader.  
Just at that moment the door behind them opened and FeiLong came out, escorted by a couple of men, while another of them was dragging a very young man, of about twenty years old.  
Wang recognized him as the boy that he had found along with the other six men that entered stealthily into their territory to follow Yoh.  
The unknown boy, apart from the well-tailored clothes that were slightly crumpled, did not show any sign of violence, unlike the other six men. And this was because of a precise order from him.

When they raided the place where the intruders were hiding, the others had tried so hard to protect the boy, that Wang had guessed that he was their leader, and considered that it was appropriate and wise to treat him in a more "gentle" way.

It would be up to FeiLong, later, to determine whether the boy needed a lesson or not.  
Even now, from inside the room, he heard the other six men making noise, worried at the idea that the boy was being taken where they could not protect him... and he heard also the "kind" reaction of Baishe's men to their protests.

FeiLong brought the long ivory pipe to his mouth and gently tightened his lips around the mouthpiece, while, with a look as sharp as a knife, he was examining the boy standing in front of him.  
This whole story was becoming a problem bigger than what it seems to have been at the beginning.  
At the head of this gang of fools, which dared to enter the Baishe's territory with the intent to act against his authority, there was Lee Feng, a boy with a minute look, who appeared younger than the 22/23 years he actually was.  
FeiLong knew that the leader of the Lee family had recently died, and that this kid with a bellicose air that, rather than strike fear, inspired tenderness for his naive imitation of a Mafia family's leader, had to be his successor.  
The long-haired man inhaled a little puff of smoke, and, after having held it for a while, blew it away, slowly.  
The Lee family had some power, but, if compared with Baishe, they were paltry. Lately, however, the Baishe could not afford mistakes, so FeiLong was pleased that Wang had the foresight in deciding to treat the boy "civilly".

"Sit down," he said to the boy, who was still standing before him.  
Lee Feng stared at FeiLong with a look that, in his thoughts, would have to be grim, and remained standing.  
"If I order you to sit, you have to sit," the leader of Baishe said, taking another mouthful of smoke. The tone of FeiLong's voice was not intimidating, but Lee Feng found the older man's gaze at once seductive and terrifying. Some how, that look had a power he couldn't fight, so Lee Feng sat down, actually almost collapsing on the chair.  
"You're an idiot...," the long-haired man said, then.  
"I..." But another gaze from FeiLong made him shut up.  
"Lee Feng ..., I know who you are, and frankly I am surprised that your first act as head of your family is coming to Hong Kong without my permission and act without having received my approval. If your life is not dear to you, there are less blatant ways to commit suicide. But most of all, there are simpler ways that would have avoided me from losing my precious time."  
"I'm not here to commit suicide," the boy dared to reply.  
"And who gave you permission to speak?" the leader of Baishe silenced him once again.  
The boy lowered his gaze, so that the other would not see his cheeks turning red from the humiliation and shame.  
The boy had never met Liu FeiLong before, but, despite the fact that the leader of the Baishe was treating him in a way that no one else had ever dared, rather than feel anger, he felt shame for the compassion that he saw in the eyes of the older man.

And this was the reason why Lee Feng did something that he had never done throughout his entire life, he apologized, "I'm sorry ...," the boy whispered, without lifting his eyes.  
"What pushed you to act so foolishly?" FeiLong asked, sitting at his desk and leaning his pipe in its onyx box.  
"I have to kill a man; I have to avenge a _person_. My father would have wanted to do this, but he could not, because the man worked for you and my father didn't wanted to disturb you in any way, Liu-sama ..."  
"Your father was much wiser then you ...," FeiLong said. "_Even if his motivations were not about respect, but about fear, fear of being annihilated by the Baishe ...,_" he thought.

FeiLong had dealt before with Lee Senior, and knew that he was a man who had a very elastic concept of honour and respect, and an avid lover of money, but a strong sense of self-preservation.

"Now that this man is no longer one of your _employee, _Laoban," Lee Feng continued, lengthening a hand to FeiLong's desk, and laying an old photo on it, "and that, according to my information, he seems to have acted in a way that offended your trust, I thought ..."

"You thought wrong ...," the long haired man reprimanded him, "and you have to thank the Fates that I have been in a generous mood, lately. The fact that the person affected was in disgrace to my eyes, has no importance, here; nobody dies, or lives, or just breathes in Hong Kong, if I don't decide that he could die, or live or breathe. And entering into my territory at the head of armed men, without my permission, usually means death," he added.  
The boy nodded.  
"Lee Feng, get out of my town, you and your men. And do not come back before three days to formally ask me for a favour, namely, to get what you came to look for. And at that time, I will decide whether, how, where and when you can get the request. And how much it will cost you and your organization to achieve it...," FeiLong stated, with a calm and cold voice.  
"Yes, Liu-Laoban ...," said the boy, swallowing the bitter pill.  
He stood up, trying to avoid the gaze of disappointment from the older man and, after a deep bow, he walked towards the exit. Before closing the door behind him, Lee Feng turned again towards FeiLong.  
"Thank you for taking the time to say these things to me far away from my men ...," he said, and then he went out.

Yoh was standing beside the bedroom window, in the small studio flat where he had lived since that night.  
Hidden to the view of anyone who could be outside, he looked out.  
The people who had followed him for the past couple of days, lately had become more enterprising, but today seemed to have disappeared.  
Strange….  
The Chinese noticed their presence almost immediately; not because they were not "professional" in following their pawn, but Hong Kong had been "his" territory for over seven years, now. There was nothing unusual that could happen around him in the surrounding districts that he would have failed to notice.

Certainly, they were not men of Baishe because, as long as he was in Hong Kong, FeiLong did not need to have people follow him to know exactly where he was or what he was doing; here, the leader of Baishe had eyes, ears and hands everywhere.  
The gang that was after him, especially to be able to move so easily into and throughout Hong Kong, clearly was there with the consent of FeiLong.

Yoh thought that the intentions of these people were quite clear, judging by how they moved, there was a death sentence on his head.

Now that he was no longer protected by his membership in Baishe, someone had decided to make him pay for some old debt, and FeiLong had consented .  
Yoh left the window and sat on the bed, leaning his back on the headboard, and lit up a cigarette.

On his muscular chest and arms, there were still the telltale signs of the torture that the Baishe men had put him through.  
Yoh closed his eyes. The fact that his life was in danger didn't upset him too much; he had expected to lose it more than a month before, on that ship. What he had to do, he had already done, he had confessed his feelings to FeiLong, and so there was anything else he could do. He could ask nothing, nor pretend nothing.  
He had hoped that FeiLong would have agreed to kill him, so that he could redeem his honour by paying with his life for his treason. So that for a small moment before his death, he would be able to see the bullet's run from FeiLong's hand to his heart, in a trajectory that, for a fraction of time, would trace a strap between him and the man he loved.  
But that had not happened.  
Yoh crushed the butt of his cigarette into the ashtray and then intertwined his fingers under the nape of his head. It was likely that everything would be over soon all the same, and after all, if there is no one to mourn for your death, what matters if you live or not?  
The only thing about what he was sure, was that he would not have allowed anyone to kill him without fighting back, unless it was FeiLong in person, who was pulling that trigger.  
Because, even if his life was useless, even if the silence around and inside him was deafening, at least he was alive, and he could remember the beautiful man that had stolen his heart, and, sometimes, watched him from afar.

Yoh lifted his eyes toward the window, towards the sky that was taking the warm colours of the sunset.  
At least, until he had been alive, he could watch the sun disappearing beyond the horizon _with_ FeiLong.

As in every free evening in his life, FeiLong was, once again, sitting on the armchair that overlooked directly onto the large window of his study that sent back to him the image of the sun that was melting into the sea, giving to the water its warm bloody colours.  
The red light slightly coloured the Chinese man's alabaster cheeks, and lit them with the tones of the ruby, while his soft lips were elegantly enjoying a strong, aromatic tea.  
The long-haired man squinted his eyes to focus on Tao, who, in a corner of the large room, was repeating, with his crystalline voice, his English lesson.  
FeiLong laid the cup on the low table beside him, and took in his hands the yellowed photo that Lee Feng had left on his desk that morning.

Actually, it was only half of a photo, the other part seemed to have been torn away, or perhaps burnt because of the stains of smoke, which seemed to have blackened the back.  
FeiLong passed the tip of his fingers on it. Yoh was much younger in that picture, and the image was certainly preceding compared to their meeting in prison. He had long hair that almost reached his shoulders, and he smiled. In seven years, FeiLong had never seen him smile.  
Yoh ...  
FeiLong threw the photo on the hand table, and brought his gaze trough the large window. The sun was now set and the sky had turned purple, while the full moon was taking its throne in the middle of the night.  
The leader of the Baishe had so carefully avoided thinking about Asami, Akihito and Yoh these last few weeks, and, on the other hand, everything the Fates had in store for them, had already been accomplished. He could rack his brains for years on what could be and what had not yet been, on who was wrong, on all the t "if" and the "but", but nothing would have changed: the sense of emptiness, loneliness, the regret would have remained there, inside his heart.  
FeiLong had said to himself, many times over, that the reason why he had not ordered for Yoh the obvious punishment that the traitors' deserve, was that he needed some time to keep some distance between himself and the recent past, including whether linking him to Asami, but later, Yoh would have what he deserved.  
Moreover, why would Yoh's fate have to be different from all of the other traitors? His punishment was only slightly delayed.  
But now, unexpectedly, FeiLong was called to decide on Yoh's life, out of the blue.  
It would be not difficult to choose, because there was not any choice but a sole possible decision. But that decision was so very difficult for him to take, and the long-haired man could not understand why.  
"Tao," FeiLong called, turning his gaze to the kid who immediately got up and ran to receive the orders of his master.  
"Tell Wang to make a car ready, I have to go somewhere," he said.

(*) in the Shing Wo Triad is "426," is a numerical symbol for an "enforcer."

(To be continued)


	4. Chapter 4

Yoh rapidly blinked his eyelids and made a huge effort to maintain his usual composed expression.

That night, finally closing the door of his studio apartment behind him he would have expected anything, , except to face, laying on the sill of the only window in the room, the beautiful creature he loved.  
He took a few steps toward the figure standing in front of him, not yet sure whether what he was seeing was real, or imaginary.

With his back turned towards the window, FeiLong's silhouette seemed cut in the blue glimmer of that night's full moon, a night whose colours were dying down due to the approaching of a thunderstorm.  
FeiLong's beauty, in that light, seemed almost unearthly, and Yoh did not have the strength to tear his gaze from those amethyst eyes, which were watching him with the manner of a warrior god, while his delicate nostrils vibrated with each breath.  
The _spell_ that took him made him almost believe that he was losing his senses. Maybe it was just an hallucination, and perhaps the insanity came to help him escape from that emptiness inside him.  
Meanwhile, the weather outside had changed abruptly, and layers of thin but dense clouds had covered the night sky. Large drops of rain began to fall, sparse at first, then increasingly thick, insulating the noises of the city's night.  
The light of the full moon that now was behind the veil of clouds, had been replaced by the intermittent flash of the neon sign from a cinema that was on the other side of the road.  
FeiLong raised his right arm towards Yoh; in his hand was a silver gun.  
The glare of light on the barrel came and went, in unison with the neon sign, but Yoh had no concern of it.

The weapon was only a small reflection in the most peripheral corner of his eyes, which were committed in admiring, with desire, the ethereal face of the man in front of him when the room was illuminated, and to recall his diaphanous beauty when the room slipped back into darkness.  
Light and shadow.  
FeiLong.  
"How dare you look at me in this way!" FeiLong's voice was a threatening hiss that slipped through the full, red lips, curved into a cruel grin.  
No, he was not a vision.  
"I'm sorry if this annoys you, FeiLong-sama, but I cannot help it ... now I cannot hide any more ..."  
_"At least, let that the last thing that my eyes will see, be your face ...,"_ he thought. Anyway, what else could the leader of Baishe be there for, if not to require the exact payment of his debt?  
In the room, almost bare of furniture, the metallic click of the gun's cock being armed by FeiLong's tapering finger echoed like a snap.  
"Lower your gaze, I said!" FeiLong hissed, between his teeth, while his proud eyes sparked of black lightning.  
Yoh smiled. Well, it was not a _real_ smile; it was rather a soft shade on his lips, almost imperceptible. However, it was his eyes that were changed, a look that FeiLong had never seen in seven years. The same look of a young man in an old, scorched photo...  
"I was afraid that I would find in your eyes the look of seven years ago, but I am happy to see this proud and authoritarian glance; the same as these last seven years."  
FeiLong sighed, disarming the cock of the gun.  
No, he just couldn't do it.  
"I preferred for you to be the mute and mono-expressive man I used to know ...," he said, lowering the gun.  
"For how long now have you not obeyed my orders, Yoh? Or rather, has there ever been a time when you did? he added, after a few seconds, with a suddenly tired voice.  
"You... you knew that?"  
FeiLong put the weapon in the holster tied to his thigh, and then turned toward the window, giving his back to the older man.  
"I avoided thinking about this entire story, after that damned night on the ship... but I suppose that escaping from reality is not so easy, right?"

The Triad leader leaned both hands on the windowsill, while the intermittent flashing of the neon light lit reflections of purple through out the long, silky strands of his hair.  
"Coming here, I thought about what Asami could have offered you to convince you to betray the Baishe in order to have Akihito back: money, perhaps? Or power... or maybe he could simply have seduced you? I know the effect that he can have on people, and how good he is in using them according to his own interests," he added with a bitter tone, "a man like him has plenty of resources, it would not have been difficult to find a way to buy you, Yoh, or anyone else. But... but while I was thinking this, I realized that there was something _wrong_, something out-of-tune, in this reasoning, also if it was perfectly logical..."

FeiLong turned once again towards the other man, and now they were so close that to lengthen a hand would be enough for them to touch each other.  
"For all these years, my confidence in you was strong because I was convinced that you were one of those men that couldn't be bought so easily, and not because you were a saint, or incorruptible, but because I have never felt that there could be something in this world that you would desire so much to become a bargaining tool. Yet, I could be wrong on this, as on the rest." An unnatural laughter gurgled between FeiLong's alluring lips, "but now I know I was not. Asami simply did not need to buy something that had always been his. I've been tricked by him right from the start, right?" he added, with a cracking in his voice, looking straight into Yoh's eyes, a look that was for him a punch into the stomach.  
The older man lowered his eyes.  
Yoh had always known, since those early days in that dirty jail, since he first saw the fire burning into FeiLong eyes, that the_ moment of truth_ would arrive sooner or later.

He had _prepared_ himself for years to endure the contempt and the anger of the man he loved as part of his deserved punishment, but what he never wanted to see was FeiLong blaming himself, or feeling humiliated, for not being able to win his eternal _duel_ with Asami.  
The only thing Yoh wanted now was FeiLong to be able to end forever this "challenge", this distorted love that had _eaten_ him from the inside, even if the final cut was nothing but a bullet that ran at full speed through his heart, the heart of a double agent.

Something with no value.

"And so you are not the dirty traitor of the Baishe, but you have always been the loyal and efficient spy of Asami Ryuichi...," added the leader of Baishe.  
Yoh forced himself to look again at him, searching those amethyst eyes, but he had his face turned towards the window, intent on watching a moth that, stubbornly, went voluntarily, again and again, to beat against the glass. It was trying to reach the light that, seductively, was calling from the other side of the windowpane.  
The same light that was only there to burn it alive, if the night's butterfly would be able to reach it. Ironically, the warmth of that light would kill it, but now that something was preventing it from reaching the fire, the butterfly was killing itself trying to remove the obstacle that was saving it.

"No, I was a traitor, the worst. Each time I wanted to serve only you, each time, unconsciously, I have omitted or changed the reality in my report to Asami-sama, to be able to stay at your side. When I haven't simply taken Akihito back to him, as he asked, but suggested something else only for the fear of being discovered and then having to leave you…" FeiLong's fingertips then reached out to touch Yoh's lips and remained there for a moment, to stop his words.  
He did not need to hear any more from him.  
The only reason why the cruel leader of the Baishe had come there that night was to understand why, this time, it was so difficult to decide to kill a traitor.  
And now he knew why.  
On that night upon the ship, while the words of Yoh almost bothered him, his gaze, instead, branded somewhere inside of him.  
Despite, in the past weeks, he tried to pile up situations, minutes, work, thoughts on the memories of that night, Lee Feng forced him to come back to them, to _decide _on his past.

And he remembered, along with the painful goodbye to Asami and Akihito, _those_ words and_ those_ eyes.  
Now he has seen that look again, and he realized that no one had ever looked at him like that before.  
In the eyes that had surrounded him all his entire life, he had seen desire, interest, fear, adoration, terror, lust, greed, remorse ... but he had never seen ones that were so heartfelt and desperate, and so sincere ...nor with such deep remorse.  
In the eyes of a spy and a traitor... wasn't it ironic!  
And, he was not able to give Yoh the punishment he deserved ... because now he knew that there was no anger, nor hate, nor indifference in his heart towards him.  
"FeiLong-sama...?" Yoh whispered taking a step toward him, with a worried air.  
FeiLong never noticed, until that moment, that he knew Yoh's scent very well, and how familiar to him his voice was, and how he had never realized it until now.  
How many other things, very important and less important, he had ignored in the last seven years? He hadforgotten _livin_gto run behind the ghost of someone who... who...  
Distracted by those thoughts, FeiLong was surprised by the gentle and comfortable touch of Yoh's fingers, that were gently caressing his cold cheeks. "FeiLong sama?" the older man whispered again, almost in disbelief that he had dared to do what he was doing: for the first time, he was touching the velvety skin that he had dreamed of for so long.

FeiLong squinted his eyes, lingering for few seconds into the touch.

Warm and kind, this had the smell of those places where you can find refuge when everything else seems to fall down.

It would have been nice if he could ... if...  
If he had not been himself, if Yoh was not Yoh...  
If their pasts would not have been theirs, maybe ... maybe he could have thought to ... maybe.  
But he _was_ himself.  
The leader of Baishe moved his face away, less abruptly than he wanted to show. More reluctantly than what he wanted to be.  
"Leave Hong Kong. Now...," FeiLong said, leaning his hand on Yoh's chest.

And between his hand and Yoh's, an old photo.  
And under the old photo, a heart that was beating for him at a breakneck speed.  
Yoh tried to touch that hand with his own, but FeiLong had already slipped away, towards the door, and under his hand, the older man found only a scorched photo.  
And on that photo, the face of someone who had been for him ... a lifetime ago.  
"I cannot protect a traitor, or a spy."  
"I know that it is not appropriate for you to do so, FeiLong-sama."  
"They will not be here for three days ... Yoh, leave this town...," said the leader of the Baishe, opening the door, and before closing it behind him, he added, "Farewell".  
And he went out.

**to be continue**


	5. Chapter 5

A cold wind blew from the sea.  
After the meeting with Yoh, FeiLong had decided to leave his apartments in Hong Kong's midtown and spend a few days, until Lee Feng' s return, in one of his homes away from the "City", taking with him only Tao, a few servants, and even fewer bodyguards.  
The leader of the Baishe had been in a very bad mood lately, and he did not want to have too many _idiots _around him. Given the fury that could be seen darting from his eyes, the men of the Baishe accepted his decision with a secret sigh of relief.  
The Western-style villa, close to the sea, was relatively small and collected, and discreetly away from the other houses: those were the exact reasons why it was chosen.  
Languidly wrapped in a black terry bathrobe, FeiLong walked next to the large window in the bathroom, veiled by curtains of translucent silk, and sat before the great mirror of his dressing table.  
His long, dripping hair was heavy, dark waves that were sticking to his sculpted body under the bathrobe, as lascivious nocturnal snakes that slid on his milky skin.  
The full lips, bent into a harsh curve, had a disturbing tendency to be a bluish colour because of the chilly air, while the residual drops of water on his body seemed almost like tiny icy crystals.  
The temperature of the room was very cold.  
FeiLong found it appropriate to his mood.  
The longhaired man stared at his own gaze in the mirror before him, now that his image began to re-emerge as the steam that had fogged the glass was dissolving due to the cold air.  
The sense of loneliness, at this moment, was almost suffocating, and for FeiLong it was painful to see how, contrary to what was true for most people, his life was characterized by the "_subtractions"._  
People acquire experience and strength, thanks to the _presence_ of important persons around them... but he was different.

His life was characterized by the "_absence",_ by people who had impregnated their presence in his soul, and then were gone.

Forever.

They were people who had left behind their regret, remorse and recrimination.  
It was really excruciating to see how in all those years, instead of going ahead, he had done nothing but walk in a circle.  
And the centre of that imperfect circle was Asami.  
And outside the perimeter of that circle, the rest of the world.  
"_A vicious circle in the literal sense,"_ he thought, and raised his eyes again to meet his reflection.  
A circle that became the shell of his entire existence for seven, long years, of his revenge, love desire, need of redemption , blood lust. A shell that had become a prison..., a shell that now, in pieces, had left him sinking in a void that he could almost feel physically. One so unbearable, since Asami had disappeared into the darkness of that night, with Akihito, that it was so difficult to find a new reason now that the one that had driven him for 7 years was lost.

With eyes glued to his own eyes in the mirror, FeiLong's fingers rose to caress, with butterfly' touches, his lips, giving them again their cherry colour, and then went to brush his cheek, retracing the footsteps of another caress ... retracing the path drawn by Yoh's fingers.

Under his fingertips, FeiLong was not feeling the cold of his cheeks, still wet, but the warmth of that hand...

It was for the umpteenth time that he surprised himself thinking about where Yoh could be at that moment... if the two of them could ever...  
A shiver radiated from his loins, and his lips bloomed into an unintentional, imperceptible moan, that clouded for a moment the surface of the mirror.

It was as if the confrontation that FeiLong had with Yoh, two nights before, had opened a crack in the wall that he created around himself... Yoh's eyes, the urge he had read in them...  
"What the hell am I thinking?" he exclaimed angrily, trying to chase away those thoughts from his head, and slamming his fist on the cold marble top of the dressing table, when his wet hair slid forward, like a heavy blanket, to hide his face.

FeiLong bit his lower lip and his body reacted to this new desire, a desire that his mind wanted to deny, and hide it if it was not so difficult to turn off his feelings, which was one thing that he had become so damn good at doing.  
A few minutes later, a light touch at the door distracted him from all of those thoughts.  
"FeiLong-sama?" Tao's voice, slightly worried, preceded the face and the big eyes of the boy that was now peeping in behind the door.  
"Do you need something, sir?" he asked.  
FeiLong took in his bathrobe a bit more.  
"Yes thanks, Tao," he said, smiling, "could you help me with my hair?"  
Tao nodded energetically, smiling, happy to be useful to his master.  
FeiLong thought that, if someone had managed to take away from him even that innocent smile, even the boy he consider almost as a son, he probably would never be able to be _rescued_at all.

...

Midnight ...  
Even this night the sleep did not want to come and help him. It had been several days that he could not sleep, if not only for a few hours, which then was a restless and exhausting sleep.  
FeiLong rose from the bed, the only thing that he could do was to find a good book, and have a cup of hot tea.  
The leader of the Baishe walked to the window of his room, and drew aside the curtains.

It was raining... his fingers tightened as claws on the heavy drapery, and he could feel the irritability rising inside him.

He breathed slowly, trying to calm down and let the curtains slip away from his hand.

While the fabric slid between his fingers, FeiLong seemed to catch a glimpse of a figure that was looking towards him, from outside the fence of the villa, surrounded by a blanket of rain.  
The long-haired man tightened his teeth.

...

Yoh felt a dull pain in his back, while slamming against the wall.  
He tried to move, but he was stuck against the wall by the weight FeiLong's body.  
"What the hell are you doing here, huh? I ordered you to leave!"  
The voice of the leader of Baishe reached dangerously the lowest tones, and he had a strange craze vibrating in his eyes; a look that Yoh could not recall to have ever seen and that he was not able to decipher. But those eyes drew him in, as to look into the eyes of a snake... seductive and deadly.  
Yoh tried to say something, but his voice died in his throat, while FeiLong's hand tightened around his neck.  
Just a little bit of pressure, and he would die. Yoh had seen many foolish men underestimate the strength of the Triad leader, deceived by his lithe and graceful appearance and by the soft features of his gorgeous face.  
Yoh was well aware, however, that FeiLong was a perfect war-machine. His hands and his legs were lethal weapon.

Everything had happened too fast... a second before Yoh was under the rain, only to be able to feel closer to the man he loved, before he had to face Lee Feng and his men tomorrow, and a second later, he found himself being dragged inside by a furious FeiLong.

He didn't move.

While drops of rain slid from his wet hair, he was waiting calmly for anything FeiLong had in store for him.

He would gladly accept everything: to die by the long-haired man's hands was what his spirit wanted, to loose himself in those deep violet eyes was what his heart desired, to breathe his fragrance and feel the shape of that body was what his flesh longed for, and that first and last, embrace was more than what he deserved.  
"In all of these years I had never noticed your tendency towards suicide ...," continued the leader of Baishe, smiling dangerously.

"F... FeiLong-sama .. I…"  
The younger man brushed aside gently the dripping hair falling over Yoh's eyes, and then, abruptly, he grabbed them to force him to lower his head.  
"I didn't give you permission to speak! Keep your mouth closed or I will close it for you...," he hissed.  
Yoh swallowed; he knew FeiLong very well, he knew how erratic he could be, but the light that shone in his eyes in that moment, was so unknown that it worried him.  
He knew how the anger usually showed in FeiLong, and he knew how much those eyes could be cold and sharp, but he had never seen this_ "fire_" before.  
"FeiL ...," he did not have time to say his name again, when FeiLong's mouth was already on his lips, rapaciously, eager to penetrate them.  
Taken aback by the behaviour of the other man, Yoh spent a few seconds trying to react to the situation, a waste of time that FeiLong, evidently, considered too long.  
The long-haired man bit with irritation Yoh's lower lip, forcing him to open his mouth in a mute exclamation of pain, and then took that opportunity to push his tongue inside, violently.  
What was really happening was not clear in Yoh's mind, and perhaps even in FeiLong's, but it was terribly obvious for their bodies.  
Hands clung to the wet clothes, pulling them away without any reserve, while their tongues were intertwining and caressing each other furiously.  
A kiss that was a violent digging in the reciprocal wounds of their souls.  
Yoh almost felt his legs buckle under FeiLong's sensual assault, while the Triad leader, brazen and beautiful, mercilessly sank his nails into the other man's flesh.

They separated, panting.  
"I... I thought that you were angry at me, laoban"  
"I'm furious, in fact! I ordered you to leave Hong Kong, but you obviously disobeyed. You really want to die, huh?" the long-haired man said, with his face so near to Yoh's head, he was whispering directly into the other man's ear, and then, with very little kindness, he bit his lobe.  
Overwhelmed with pleasure, Yoh closed his eyes and his hands came down on the damp dressing gown that FeiLong had on, pulling away the heavy silk.

Shyly, he slid his fingers on FeiLong's silky skin, testing the strength of the muscles so well outlined below it.

The skin that he had dreamed so often about, the skin that he could only catch a glimpse of some times, but which he had never been able to touch, as if it could be his right to do, and even now, he painfully felt that maybe it was not.  
Another kiss now, strong, but less violent than the first one, long and passionate, their lips sought each other, with a contact that felt such as water in the desert.  
They separated only to catch their breaths, and Yoh saw once again _that fire_ in FeiLong's eyes, but now he knew what it meant, and he felt a deep jealousy for anybody else that could have ever seen that look.  
There were no other words, and their wet clothes on the floor marked their path from the door to the bed.  
FeiLong's cock twitched when Yoh asked simply "What do you wish for?" with a hoarse and low voice, a tone that he had never heard from his calm and composed ex right-hand man.  
"Please me, Yoh...," he said, and with a tempting glance, he rubbed the older man's lips with his thumb's tip.  
Yoh felt a hot shiver running down his spine, and he went down on the other man's body, brushing, with his semi-parted lips, a path marked by the bands of muscles on that splendid body, and proceeding with a maddening slowness.

His long, strong fingers were dipped in the ocean of magnificent black silk that was FeiLong's hair.  
Soon, Yoh's fingers left those lush strands and reached his own lips that were caressing the flat and muscular belly of FeiLong, who, taken aback, squinted his eyes in anticipation, and then those fingers travelled the short journey from his navel to his cock.  
Yoh finally bent on the younger man's erected member, and gently tapped his fingertips along its length, with warm caresses.  
FeiLong moaned, allowing himself to groan without any composure, for once, while the older man's lips began to gently caress the testicles, and his hand seized his erected manhood.  
"I... I said with your lips ...," FeiLong whispered, his voice broken with pleasure.  
"Yes, _master_...," was the reply, and, despite the term chosen, there was no trace of submissiveness in her tone.

Yoh's tongue took the place of his fingers, going up along the entire length of the younger man's cock, and then surrounding the tip with his lips, before wrapping it completely with his mouth, so hot and exciting.

He continued to move around him, and FeiLong was not able to say for how long.

It was so good ... too good.….

The long-haired man felt that he was about to come, but that was not what he wanted, or rather, it was not _the way_ he wanted it.  
Gently holding Yoh's hair, he said, "Stop now, Yoh... and come here".  
The older man lifted his gaze, confused, but he obeyed, rising to meet FeiLong's eyes.  
"You're very talented, Yoh... this surprises me, since you have never been with another man before, right?" he whispered in the other man's ear.  
Taken aback, Yoh frowned, but then replied, "You're right, FeiLong-sama ..."  
"I knew it... and if I ask you to be mine tonight, would this be a problem for you, Yoh? Will you let me take you, Yoh?" He said, then, amused, with his burning lips glued to the shell of the other's ear.

After that, a continued repeating of his name by FeiLong's luscious lips was a real torture for Yoh's senses.  
"Yes." Was the firm reply of the older man. A quick, but obviously well thought reply, a firmness that for a moment surprised FeiLong.  
The surprise was not only for the determination he saw in Yoh's eye, but also for his own reaction at this determination: FeiLong found himself very pleased in understanding that, in Yoh's attitude, there was a significance far beyond the mere consent to bottom that night.

For the first time in his life, he was with someone he really could say he knew, with someone with whom he had shared a part of his life and thoughts with. He was with someone whose voice and whose scent he knew very well... with someone who knows him, all of him, also the worst parts of his soul.

For the first time FeiLong seemed to see, in the surrender of a lover to him, something different than _weakness and submission._  
"Then turn, Yoh ...," he whispered, sweetly.

...

FeiLong rose up into a semi-sitting position, and leaned his head on the pillows.

He could not tell how long he had slept, probably only a couple of hours, but it was a very restful sleep.

A kind of sleep of which he had almost forgotten the existence of, especially in the past recent weeks.  
It was raining very loudly now, a sound like a mesmerizing lullaby, and the long-haired man closed his eyes, and was carried away by it. The long, curved eyelashes, from the light of the little night lamp, cast a blue shadow on his alabaster cheeks.  
One leg stretched and the other bent, the arms folded, with his hands intertwined on his belly, with the sheets that barely covered him... everything felt so good, so right, and he felt "sane."

After so long.  
"FeiLong-sama ...," Yoh's voice, low and warm of sleep, was another caress to his senses.  
The leader of Baishe wondered what the reason of that delicious sensation was.  
Was it only about good sex?

Probably, for someone else that could be the case, but he had never found any real "consolation" in the sex act. Perhaps, if not for the possibility to deceive his mind and his doubts by pushing on the accelerator of his senses with the _toy_ on call - exactly what Akihito said to him - or to show to others, and mostly to himself, his power, his dominion... _because between two men who sleep together there can not be something so stupid like love._  
"FeiLong-sama?" Yoh called again, but the long-haired man seemed a thousand miles away from that room, a thousand miles away from him.  
"Uhm ...?" said the absent-minded FeiLong, continuing to look out the window.  
Yoh got up to sit on the bed, lowering his gaze on his hands.

He could still feel on them the warmth of FeiLong's body, the silky consistency of his hair.

He could still feel the pain and the pleasure FeiLong gave to him, and see the breathtaking sight of his orgasm.

However, now it seemed that it was time for Yoh to again become "_nobody_".

He was fully aware of the fact that he could not pretend anything, but this hurt so much that he could barely breathe.

Maybe he had to be grateful to the Fates that had given him this last night with the man he loved before putting him in front of a guilt that came back from the past, in front of Lee Feng' s men.

Maybe...  
"You want me to go...," Yoh whispered, and it was not a question.  
The sadness that could be heard in that voice was for FeiLong like a breath of wind that swept away that halo of wellness he had felt so far.  
Astonished, FeiLong turned his head to meet Yoh's face, which was mending the usual flat expression, even if his deep black eyes were saying something completely different.  
The older man moved to get up, but he felt FeiLong's hand grasping his.  
"You could stay until it stops raining, maybe...,"he said.  
Yoh gazed at those eyes and then at the tapering fingers that were grabbing his, and every possible word died in his throat.

There was no creature more beautiful than the man that lied near him, there was nothing in this world for him, if not FeiLong, and he still could not believe what had happened in that room between them.  
He returned to sit quietly on the bed, his back resting on the headboard.  
There they remained, sitting one next to the other, their fingers entwined, listening to the sound of rain, ceaseless and purifying.

After a few, long minutes, FeiLong unexpectedly leaned his head on the other man's shoulder.  
"Yoh ..."  
"Yes, FeiLong-sama?"  
"Tomorrow Lee Feng will be back here; to ask for your head..."  
"Yes, FeiLong-sama, and I know that your duty is to think only to the Baishe's interes..."  
"So, why did you not leave Hong Kong?" FeiLong interrupted him, rising his head to bring his lips closer to Yoh's, "Why are you still here …," he added, blowing these last words on his mouth.  
"Because you have my heart, and a man cannot live too far away from his heart...," was the answer, and Yoh's voice was low and broken. _"Because you live in my own flesh and my life and my death are only for you…," _he screamed in his heart, and he would have wanted to be a man capable of expressing in words what he felt.

"You're a fool...," FeiLong replied, and something ached in his chest, while the lips of the older man began to gently caress his; the reality was suddenly headed back in that room.  
Tomorrow morning, the decision on Yoh's life would be given by _the Leader of Baishe,_ and as a leader of Baishe, there could be only one decision to make.

"You're really a fool...," FeiLong repeated, while his hands went to brush the other man's bare chest.

_If I was not myself... if only I could be someone else..._

***To be continued***


	6. Chapter 6

The sky was smooth and colored with a light blue, while a cold sun, almost white, was reflected in thousands of mirrors, which were nothing but the huge windows of Wan Chung's buildings made of steel and glass, the skyscrapers of the business district in Victoria City.  
The air was crystal-clear, cleaned from the city's gray patina by the recent rains, and the unusual cold of that morning seemed to almost freeze the landscape.  
FeiLong was settled in the roomy armchair in his office at the top floor of a huge building into the heart of Wan Chung. His legs were lazily stretched on a footstool, and he was sipping a cup of precious white tea, a fleshy, bright colored liquid covered with tiny white hairs, with a flavor so subtle that only a practiced palate could really enjoy the delicate fragrance.  
It was the same tea that Liu Senior would choose to drink when he had to meditate on important decisions for the Baishe, or on more personal matters.

FeiLong usually preferred _Oolong_ tea, definitely more intense and very aromatic, almost a taste of wood and dried fruit, but there was something in a story he had heard the night before, which had overwhelmingly reminded him of his father, and the scent of the white tea.  
The fireplace in the Baishe leader's private office was turned on that morning.

It had always been more part of the scenery than functional, considering that the room was fully air conditioned, but FeiLong that day needed more to _see_the fire than to _feel_ the heat. Sometimes the sensation is not enough, you need to _see and touch_ what generates it, to be able to understand it.  
The leader of the Triad laid down the cup on a low coffee table at his right side. He

squinted his eyes and bent his head with gracefulness, while the forefinger and the middle finger of his left hand rose to massage the middle of his forehead.  
During the previous night, much had happened, much more than what you might think at first glance.

Things he had to ponder on, and he had very little time to do it.

That very afternoon, Lee Feng would be in front of him asking for the life of a man, and expecting from him only one answer, and with Lee Feng, the rest of the world that mattered for Him.

Expectations that the _Leader of Baishe_ could not ignore ... Yoh's death.  
"Yoh ..., "he murmured.

_FeiLong opened his eyes and, through the veil of his long dark lashes, turned his gaze toward the window; the darkness outside was thick and the light of dawn seemed far away. _  
_The long-haired man closed his eyes again and remained there, silently, enjoying the soft noise of the rain and the warmth of the bed. But above all, the warmth of Yoh's body that was lying underneath his own. Yoh's chest became his cushion that night and the heartbeat of the older man, which sounded right beneath his left ear, was a relaxing tam-tam. _  
_FeiLong gently moved his long and tapered fingers; the sleep had caught them while they were caressing the crease where Yoh's muscular thigh rejoined the body, and now FeiLong played for a while with the other's soft dark pubic hair, which at that point curled delightfully._

_FeiLong then slid his hand up along the belly and then the stomach of the older man, and finally laid it on the chest of his partner. _  
_The scars of the blows received by the men of the Baishe, by order of FeiLong himself, could still be felt under his fingers, as their shadows could be seen on the amber skin._

_Since the day when they had been engraved on Yoh's flesh, everything had changed ...so that nothing would change. _  
_"Soon the dawn will arise, FeiLong-sama." _  
_The long-haired man lifted his head toward Yoh's face when he heard his words. _  
_That phrase seemed a simple statement of fact, an obviousness, but in reality from those words leaked the bitter taste of the word "_farewell_". _  
_The new day was dawning and with it, Lee Feng would arrive as well . _  
_FeiLong raised his fingers to caress the well-designed eyebrows of the older man, and nodded. _  
_The eyelashes were wet, and on the cheeks you could begin to perceive the slight roughness of a beard. _  
_Yoh's expression, while he was looking into FeiLong's eyes, was calm, as if the danger hanging over him did not exist, as if it was a thing that did not concern him._

_The older man lowered his gaze from the eyes of the man he loved to the perfect line of his nose, to the delicacy of his nostrils, under which blossomed FeiLong's red and fleshy lips. _  
_The long-haired man "physically" felt Yoh's eyes caressing every inch of his body._

_It was so good that, almost unconsciously, he rose from the body of the other man and lied next _  
_him, so that he could gaze across his naked body. _  
_Yoh smiled, pleased that with his imperceptible smile, FeiLong accepted his gaze, pleased that he liked it, and so he bent to gently kiss FeiLong lips._

_A chaste and gentle kiss... and even that was a_ farewell.  
_FeiLong's heart skipped and missed a beat. _  
_Yoh sat on the bed, his gaze now towards the window._

_Despite the sky that was covered with clouds, he could sense that the dawn was about to rise._

_"It is time for me to go, Laoban," he said._  
_"Yoh, you still have time to leave Hong Kong ..." _  
_"Do not be worried for my life, FeiLong-sama. You have to do everything that you need to do for what really matters to you, please do what is right for Baishe…" _  
_"Yoh…" _  
_The older man turned to FeiLong, caressing his cheek with the back of the hand, like that first time. _  
_"Nine years ago I had no reason to continue living, but now I thank the gods that they gave me the opportunity to survive, and that I could live to enjoy_ _this night. This night with you is enough to make the past years worth living. But Lee Feng will present soon an account. And I will not run away." _  
_FeiLong closed his eyes, thoughtfully._

_There was this strange feeling in his chest, something between physical weakness and sadness, but he did not know how to name it._

_And then, there was that doubt about Lee Feng's reasons running in his head..._

_But he had to do something...__  
__"Yoh ..." _  
_"Yes, FeiLong-sama." _  
_"Why does Lee Feng want your life?"_

FeiLong was diverted from his thoughts by the crackling of the firewood, and he rose from the armchair.

Now he had made his decision.

There was an opportunity to protect everything that really mattered to him, and to settle some things that belonged to the past. If everything worked as in his plans, the _past_ would have his redemption as well.  
Lee Feng would be there soon, and he would have what he wanted, but perhaps he did not know where that would lead him.

…

The shiny black limousine was moving slowly in the rush hour's traffic in Wan Chung. Lee Feng, with his arms crossed on his chest and a cold look, was in the back seat, apparently intent to contemplate the flood of cars that moved at an exasperating slowness.  
He was very annoyed.

Lee Feng hated big cities, and he hated the traffic and the crowds and, mostly, he hated that he had to ask Liu FeiLong a favor; Lee Feng hated almost everything he was obliged to do, lately.

His father had died too early, too soon, before he had the opportunity to achieve the vengeance that he had pursued for years.  
Now Lee Feng's sister would be vindicated, and his family's honor as well.  
At the exact moment when he formulated this thought, a sarcastic smile appeared on his thin lips.  
For years he had repeated this_ lie_, at the point that now he had begun to say it even to himself. His sole purpose was not to avenge her, or the pride of his clan, but only the honor of his father, who was not able to prosecute the person that was responsible of kidnapping and killing his own daughter. The person responsible of putting that unbearable shame on his name.  
His father was quite another thing than perfect, and now he knew it.

However, since he was a child, they inculcated into him the worshipping of the man, and his every decision was made because of that myth. Lee Feng's being was the result of that myth. To protect what he believed to be true, Lee Feng deliberately avoided seeing every stain caused by his father's behavior. However, this one was known by everyone, therefore, it had to be washed away with blood, that same day.

…

Wang knocked at the door and asked permission to enter, then lowered the handle and entered the office of the Leader of the Baishe.  
He approached FeiLong's desk and stood still a few steps away from it, with his hands joined behind his back.  
"Did you send for me, Laoban?"  
"Yes, Wang. News about Lee Feng?" the Triad leader replied, without raising his eyes from the papers that he was checking with great interest.  
"He will be here within a couple of hours, Laoban. He has five men with him, and..."  
"I see..," FeiLong interrupted him, raising his gaze upon his henchman, "We'll surely come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement."  
Wang's expression did not change at all, but he was concerned.

FeiLong had evidently decided to hand Yoh over to Lee Feng .

Obviously, this is the right thing in favor of Baishe's interests. But, was it the right thing for FeiLong?

Wang could not say why, but he was not sure about that. The henchman knew the young leader of the Baishe since he was a boy, and he was fully aware that, every time FeiLong had to make decisions in favor of the Organization, like when he let YanTsui rule over him, it had always caused pain and suffering to him.

On the other hand, when FeiLong pursued his own selfish desires, like his revenge against Asami, it had always caused problems for the Baishe. It seemed that FeiLong's desires and aspirations, and the ones of the Leader of the Baishe, despite the fact that they were the same person, were_irreconcilable_.  
"In exchange for achieving his revenge, I'll ask Lee Feng to cede completely to Baishe one of the minor activities of his organization." FeiLong said, lying on the back of his armchair.  
"The main activity of the Lee family is smuggling works of art, gems and archaeological finds, but their residual activity, uhm... they have interest also in drug trafficking. That is not their main business, but it is very profitable, I do not believe that he..."  
"I'm not interested in their drug business: it is already under Baishe's indirect control, as those of anyone else here in China. What I really want are their routes of arms smuggling, including contacts, information and links."  
Wang frowned, trying not to betray his concern.  
"This is a good choice Laoban, but if I can give my opinion, we do not have much experience in this field, and the routes controlled by Lee Feng, the way that they are now, are not developed enough to be very profitable, that is without a large employment of money and effort on our part, so..."  
"Have you ever thought to enterprise a diplomatic career, Wang? I prefer you to tell me what your doubts are, without any other wasted words." the Leader of Baishe retorted, crossing his arms on his chest, with a light grin.  
"FeiLong-sama …," the old man began, trying to choose the best words in order to not irritate his boss, "The arms smuggling run by Lee Feng, intersects and clashes with that of many more powerful groups, groups that have tolerated him only because they considered his power inoffensive. The small importance of Lee's route gave them fewer problems than what could come out from an unnecessary friction between families that a war could cause. But Baishe is not Lee's organization. If we were to enlarge the market so that it would pay us at a level that Baishe could find interesting, this_ surely_ would clash with other families' businesses, and ..."  
"Since when has Baishe feared the competition, Wang?" FeiLong's voice seemed colder and his smile had dissolved.  
"That is not what I was trying to say..., the problem is that our main competitors in arms smuggling would be certain foreign groups that, that... "  
"That... ?" FeiLong spurred him.  
"Laoban, the Baishe would clash directly with the largest arms trafficker in the Asian market, namely Asami Ryuichi," the old man finally said.  
"I was sure that this was _your_ problem, Wang! Asami Ryuichi is a_businessman_, he is supposed to know that on his way competitors may emerge, however it is probably his huge ego that could make him believe to be immune to this, but he is not."  
"FeiLong sama, I don't believe that you..."  
"On the contrary, you should have _faith_, Wang." FeiLong replied, with a smile that was so sensual and, at the same time, so frightening.

***To be continued***


	7. Chapter 7

Yoh was sitting in his studio, and in front of him was the only door and on the side wall, at a certain distance from him, the only window.  
Definitely, that was the best position to defend himself from attacks by anyone who had tried to enter the room.  
Not that he had many alternatives.  
He was not sure about how many men Lee Feng would bring with him, but he was confidant that there would not be that many.

FeiLong _had_ to support the request of the head of the Lee family, because that would be beneficial to the Baishe - a benefit payable at the insignificant price of a traitor's life - but certainly he would never have allowed a large group of _strangers _to go around armed in his territory.  
In normal cases, FeiLong would allow Lee Feng to take with him a maximum of five men, while the men of Baishe would monitor them from afar.

The Triad Leader, however, communicated to Yoh that, in this case, he would allow Lee Feng to take with him no more then three men.  
FeiLong told him this that very morning, while he watched him dress…, and then he let him go.

Yoh revised mentally his chances: he was aware of Lee Feng's arrival, something that his foe could not predict. This gave him a certain benefit, because he had the opportunity to be ready and receive him.

Maybe it was not so absurd thinking that he might be able to get away with it.  
While he was loading the gun he was going to use, after having ensured the spare one was in the holster that was tied to his ankle, Yoh thought that FeiLong had done for him much more than he deserved. First, he had warned him to leave Hong Kong, and now that he knew that this would not happen, the leader of the Baishe was minimizing the number of men that would be after him.  
In fact, Yoh was trying with all his strength not to give to this behavior a meaning that is beyond magnanimity, or piety, but...

On one hand, he did not want to pass the possible last moments of his life living in an illusion, but, on the other hand, in the bottom of the bottom of his soul, the idea that FeiLong could feel something for him was simultaneously the sweetest consolation and most tormenting goodbye to his life.

...

Yoh sat on the floor, waiting.  
The man massaged his eyes with his left hand, while the right one was firmly holding the gun. He was very tired, and certainly, this was not the ideal condition to face four armed and determined men whose only aim would be to kill him.

At that moment, his concentration had to be total, but his thoughts could not help but go back, like waves that endlessly chased up the beach, to the previous night.  
He went to the villa, hoping to have the chance to see FeiLong from afar, perhaps for the last time.

This thing sounded so pathetic, he was well aware of it, like one of those silly lines in a trivial, stupid love novel for an old maid, but it was nothing but the truth.  
He had spent the last seven years watching him, from afar, parted from him by the bubble of loneliness that FeiLong, methodically, had built around himself since he was in prison.  
It is probable that the leader of the Baishe was entrusted to him, and had raised him to the role of a man of his confidence, exactly because Yoh seemed to have no interest in crossing that barrier.  
Last night, however, Yoh had the delight to see that bubble breaking into a thousand pieces.

Not that he was so haughty to think it was thanks to him. FeiLong that night had somehow managed to free himself from the memory of Asami, if only for a short time, though perhaps now he was thinking back to the Japanese man.

Who could know? And what could it matter, now?  
The only thing that mattered was that the previous night FeiLong had looked at him, and for once, he had seen_ a person_.  
Not an object, not a tool, not a _piece of Baishe_.

He had watched him and saw, simply, Yoh.

More than the memory of the sex they had, the things that were still shaking the veins in Yoh's wrists, the things that he would bring with him wherever Fate was leading him to, would be the memories of FeiLong's face while he slept in his arms, their fingers intertwined in the silence of a lullaby played by the rain and FeiLong's amethyst eyes shining in the dark of that gray morning, at the moment of their parting.  
Yoh could not tell if in that look there was some pain, some sorrow for their farewell, and honestly, he did not even expect any of that.  
But he knew that a light smile graced FeiLong's soft lips, while he brushed the other's hand.

A smile he had seen very few times, and was not for him, until now.  
The man looked out the window, and the sun had begun to move westward, with a descending parabola that summarized very well his life.  
If FeiLong had shaken off from him his unhealthy desire for Asami, soon that smile would be directed to someone worthy of welcoming and returning it.  
Someone worthy to give his love to FeiLong, and to be loved back by him.

Yoh prayed for this to happen, whoever this man would be.

...

Lee Feng tightened his jaw, while a rush of hatred ran through his mind.  
His personality, however, was too rational to let the emotions prevail. He did not allow them to hinder him in the past, and he would never let it happen now.  
In front of him, the leader of the Baishe, with a relaxed, almost seraphical air, was sipping his bourbon religiously, looking into his eyes.

Lee had heard about Liu FeiLong, the young leader of the most powerful drug syndicate of Asia, as being handsome and wicked, but after their first meeting, he believed that the gossip about him was exaggerated, because back then, Liu FeiLong, was indeed proud and stunning, yet seemed to him to not be so temperamental and gratuitously cruel.  
But now... now he was there, with an amused air, watching him, making him feel as though he was on tenterhooks, and that long haired son of a bitch had the nerve to ask, in exchange for the miserable life of someone whose death could only make him happy, even Lee's route in their arms' trafficking.  
A blatant provocation!  
It was true that the weapons trade was not the main activity of the Lee's, but it had, potentially, a great economic value, especially as an object of bargain with the right people.  
Recently, Lee Feng had started preliminary contacts with some foreign groups, traffickers of high caliber that would pay very well, with money and favors, to his small business, because it would be able to eventually bring them billions.  
"Why are you asking for this? To my knowledge, Baishe is not particularly interested in this business ...," said the boy, and FeiLong mentally complimented Lee Feng for the aplomb he was able to maintain despite the disappointment that was boiling behind his still adolescent face.  
"I'm not into this activity _per sé_, in fact...," the leader of Baishe admitted, waving to the valet in order to make him again fill the glass of his guest.

"Some ice?" he asked then.  
"Then, why?" Lee retorted, maybe with a bit too much vehemence, stopping with a hand the boy who was pouring the amber liquor.

Wang, standing in the corner of the room, tensed, but his boss seemed very calm.  
FeiLong put the tobacco into the bowl of his ivory pipe, showing nonchalance about the insolence of his guest, daring to criticize on a decision made by the leader of Baishe, in his own house.

That presumptuous little bastard had guts, but FeiLong found it very funny to challenge his patience, and turned the attention toward the younger man, smiling.  
"It is not polite asking all of these questions," said the older man, bringing the mouthpiece to his full and tempting lips, "... but I have no problem in answering you. You asked me why. Well, because it is very funny...," he concluded, blowing a thin puff of smoke in the direction of his interlocutor.  
The nostrils of Lee Feng vibrated slightly, the only clue in his appearance that made FeiLong understand the big effort he needed not to show his irritation.  
"_Bastard...,_" the boy thought.

FeiLong had possibly became some way acquainted with the negotiations that Lee group was going to start with Asami Ryuichi, and evidently he found it very funny to pester the life out of him... or maybe he enjoyed pestering the life out of Asami?  
Lee Feng's eyes reduced to a slit, maybe there was something hidden under this entire situation, and he had slipped into a very dangerous war.  
"You are not obliged to accept, besides, the life of that man can not mean so much for you...," FeiLong pointed out, overlapping his long willowy legs.  
"I accept," was the dry reply of Lee Feng.  
FeiLong nodded, showing no surprise about it, because he had never thought Lee Feng would withdraw. There was at stake something very different from money.  
The leader of the Baishe knew, from harrowing experience, how some "issues" lead you to damage yourself, and what you cared for, beyond all reasonableness.

But...

But he could not see the desperation in Lee's eyes, nor that fever, that blind rage that vengeance brings with it.  
Those feelings, which had ruled him for the last seven years now, disappearing on the horizon along with Asami and Akihito, had made him feel as if he was _emptied of himself_.  
FeiLong had heard about Lee Feng's reasons from Yoh, but he was not able to reconcile the story of Yoh told him with the light in the eyes of the boy.  
He decided to ask directly to him.  
"Why are you so willing to kill that man?" he asked.  
"To avenge the death of Lee Yue Qiu, my sister...," Lee Feng's voice, cold and low, although it still resonated of the light tones of his adolescence, replied in a solemn way to FeiLong's question.  
The leader of Baishe continued to look into those eyes, the eyes of the young leader of an organization with some power.  
Twenty years.

Almost the same age he has when he was _forced_ to become the leader of Baishe.  
Destiny is mocking.

In the figure before him, FeiLong could catch a glimpse of what he was a long time ago.

A boy at the head of a group of men, who were twice his years, and who entrusted him for any decisions on their lives. Or on their death.  
But Lee Feng's reasons were so different from his own, now he could see it in his expression, cold and impatient.  
FeiLong took the path of revenge because nothing remained of what his world was.

So he had to rebuild it, piece by piece. Making it strong, frightening, powerful.

And then, used it against the only man who was simultaneously the cause of his misery and of his rebirth.  
He had hated, and he had loved Asami. He was his reason, his obsession and his nemesis.  
Yoh, for Feng Lee was, on the contrary, was nothing.

The leader of Lee family had no real interest for the man he was after.  
Lee Feng...

FeiLong was amazed about how it was so simple for him to see through the boy.

Lee was not really interested in avenging his sister, and possibly not even in bringing about his father's honor.  
You can understand from a man's eyes if he acts out of love, hatred, revenge or self-preservation.  
Lee Feng wanted to save himself.

FeiLong could not tell from what, but he knew that was the case.  
"Yoh would have killed your sister? A boy who that was … uhm, 22 or 23 years old would have killed the daughter of the boss? And your father was not able to..."  
"My father was a great man," the boy said, with a crack in his voice, perhaps with too much more momentum than he would have wanted.  
"I understand…," added FeiLong, rising from the armchair on which he graciously accommodated, immediately imitated by Feng Lee.  
Yes, he understood perfectly.

Lee Feng was struggling to keep alive the false notion of honor and respect around the figure of his father, to defend every_ ideal_ according to which he had grown, to defend the pride that held together his personality, fearing it could go into crumbs in front of a truth that, deep down, he had already guessed.  
Lee Feng made a brief bow to FeiLong, and accompanied by him, headed towards the door.  
"Only three of your men," FeiLong said, pushing away the long braid behind his shoulder, which fell heavily, caressing his back.  
That day the leader of the Baishe was not wearing one of his precious cheongsam's, but a pair of tight black trousers and a shirt, this one also quite adherent. A pair of black army boots completed his outfit.  
"What?" Lee Feng turned his head, with an air that could hardly not betray his anger.  
"You can take with you only 3 persons... are they not enough to chase a man alone?" repeated FeiLong, pretending to not have grasped the lack of respect inherent in Lee Feng's tone.  
"Yes, Liu Laoban ...," the boy said between his teeth, before to open the door, and exiting.

...

Wang was seated in the limousine, at the driver's seat.  
As soon as Lee Feng was released from the office of his master, FeiLong had looked into his eyes.  
During his meeting with Lee Feng, his boss seemed so easy, almost amused and contemptuous, but as soon as the leader of the Lee group had gone, a serious and tense expression had taken the place of the relaxed demeanor that he had until then.

Apparently, FeiLong had a plan, which included not only Lee Feng, but also someone more important to him …, and was planning it in that moment that he had made the unexpected request.  
Wang was so surprised that the leader of Baishe had asked him to bring him to one of the lower class districts.

What amazed the older man more was that FeiLong had ordered him to not say to anyone else where they were going and to not take any other of his men with them, in addition, FeiLong obliged him to wait for him in the car, and left alone.  
This is what caused the most worry, because FeiLong was not a man that could carelessly walk like everyone else into crowded streets, and as well, Wang was very aware what this district was, and unfortunately, he suspected what his boss was going to do here.

** to be continued **


	8. Chapter 8

Lee Feng and his men were a block away from the building, where, according to the information he had acquired, Yoh's apartment was located.  
Lee and his three men patrolled the surrounding area separately, and because they were acting in an unknown territory, it was necessary to find any escape, or any blind spots, where Yoh could hide to escape or strike back in case they would be not able to kill him immediately. Lee Feng was not so foolish to underestimate his enemy.  
Nine years before, that man, though almost only a boy, had become very quickly the most promising subordinate among his father's men.  
_"You must become like him, Feng. Shrewd, ambitious and determined. Few words and determination."  
"Yes father ..." _  
"Yes father ...," Feng repeated between his teeth, in a half-voice, while one of his men were approaching, and they were waiting the arrival of the third.  
Two of them, indeed, had patrolled the area alone, while the young head of the Mafia family had the loyal Xing always at his side.

Xing was a lanky man, with a face of a _certain_ beauty, though not typical, whose sole task in his life had always been to protect the boy, since his birth.  
The leader of the family Lee sighed imperceptibly.

The 11-year-old child that he was a long time ago had admired Yoh.

His father reckoned him, and he had been taught that all that his father considered and said was right and true.  
"Laoban, Dong is too late...," said one of his men, turning him away from his thoughts.  
"And he does not answer the phone," Xing added, putting the cell into his pocket again.

Feng ordered to the first man to go and look for Dong, but he already smelled a rat. The man disappeared, walking with a calm air, so as not to create suspicion among the passers-by, toward the right side of the building, but not even two minutes later he came back, this time almost running, with a worried expression in his eyes.  
When he was a few meters away from Lee Feng, he made a gesture with the right hand, moving it forward and backward, horizontally, at the height of his neck.  
Lee Feng tightened his fists until his knuckles turned white and his nails stuck in the palm of his hand.

Dong was out of the game.  
_"Son of a bitch..." _  
How was this possible? Yoh, from what they had found out, now had to be in his apartment, at the top floor of the building that was in front of them, and they had been constantly checking the only exit.  
"I think Dong did not even have the time to understand that he was attacked."  
Lee Feng narrowed his eyes, and moved resolutely towards the entrance of the building.  
"Young master!?" Xing seized the boy's arm, trying to hold him back, but a look as sharp as an ice's blade cut him down and he let him go.  
"Do you believe that _I am_ a coward? Do you believe that I fear him?" He said, and continued to walk, followed by Xing and the other man.  
Reaching the hall, the three men found themselves in front of the stairs, on the right, and on the left, there was the elevator.  
Lee Feng thought that normally Yoh would not have a clue about their presence but, considering the death of Dong, surely the "surprise affect" was now to be excluded, which meant they now should split up, so that, while 2 of them would use the stairs, the other could use the elevator, or vice versa.  
One of his men, having to work alone, took the elevator, which was an old type that does not stop at a floor until it had made the trip to the floor that was called first, and then would come back; in this case, his man could not be intercepted.

The man would take the elevator some time after the other two would begin to rise, so that the three of them would reach Yoh's apartment almost in sync.  
Lee Feng and Xing took the stairs.  
The building that they were in was really in decay, and the stairs were dark because someone had enjoyed himself by shooting all of the lamps out, and even the smell was not the best.  
_"Are you worn out to this extent, Yoh?_" the boy thought, "_you could have had everything in our organization, but you've taken the only thing that you could not aspire to..." _  
Once in sight of the end of the staircase, Xing surpassed Lee Feng, flattened himself against the wall and looked carefully into the corridor in front of Yoh's apartment.  
Xing frowned; the elevator was at their floor, and according to the noise, the elevator doors were closing, but there was no trace of his companion.  
Now the doors were reopening automatically, and then closing and reopening. There was something that blocked them.  
Xing felt the light touch of Lee Feng's hand on his arm and turned to look at him. His boss had his own suspicions, and while the latter got behind him, Xing went to check out the elevator. In the centre of the _metal box_ laid the lifeless body of his accomplice, and his arm hampered the movement of the doors that were opened automatically as soon as they touched the obstacle.

Cautiously approaching him, Xing touched the pulse point on the man's wrist to see if he was alive. He was.

Xing turned the man's head, and a bluish bruise was starting to form at the base of the neck, unfortunately, he would be KO'ed for a long time.  
"Kung fu ...," Xing said, after he reached his boss.  
"Damned bastard ...!" the boy cursed between his teeth.

Now they really needed to be very cautious; he was almost convinced that Yoh had an accomplice, and now they were two against two.  
"Young master...," Xing was looking at him with a worried air, but in response, he received only a nasty look.  
_"Lee Feng is so young...,"_ the man thought. He had known the boy since the very day of his birth. At the age of 25, his boss had assigned to him the job of protecting his newborn child, and he remembered how he was offended by the fact that Lee Senior had relegated him to be the nanny of a baby. And that child, now a young man, was likely to die in that dirty hovel for a totally useless reason.  
This story made no sense; this revenge has no logical basis.  
"If you do not want to come with me, just go away!" said the boy, resolutely turning to the door of the apartment.  
Xing sighed, and pulling him by one arm, he put Lee Feng behind himself.  
He did not know how many people could be in there, but it was almost certain that Yoh was alone.  
There was something in the development of the events that led him to think that there would be no more intrusions from mysterious accomplices of Yoh.  
This someone simply tried to eliminate the unfair advantage that Lee Feng had against his opponent, probably because he believed that Yoh, against the two of them, had all it takes to fight a _fair_ battle.  
Very noble, but Xing did not agree.  
His boss was too young, too inexperienced, and too important for his clan, _and for him_, to take the risk that he could die here.  
He would have tried to give again a small advantage to the boy. A boy that as soon as he understand that he was worth so much more than his father, and how stupid that he was to think that he must preserve the false idea of himself that they had inculcated in him, would lead the Lee family very far.  
"What the hell are you doi...?!" Lee Feng was angered because of his subordinate's behaviour, he did not have the time to finish the line, because Xing had already run through the door.  
"No!" Lee yelled,and heard two shots.

During a single moment that seemed to be played out in slow motion, Lee Feng understood Xing's intentions.

With his _empty-headed_ action, the older man just wanted to hit Yoh, hurting him, or, if he could be lucky enough, kill him, all to give an advantage to Lee Feng, to be sure that he would come out safe and sound from this situation. Although, the likelihood of injuring Yoh was equal, if not less probable, to being killed, instead, by him, who was surely waiting and ready for an attack.  
Lee Feng ran headlong after Xing, with his gun aimed in front of him.  
Once in the room he found Yoh watching him, his expression unreadable, as always, and his gun pointing at the boy.  
A slight contraction of the older man's jaw made Lee understand that there was something wrong with him.

Then Lee Feng realized that, from below Yoh's left hand, which strangely was pressed against his right side, a dark-red spot was enlarging and imbuing the white shirt.  
Xing had actually struck him, but...  
Yoh struggled, because the pain was taking over.

This issue with Lee Feng had to end immediately, because before that, the excessive blood loss would make him lose his senses, and at that point, he would be at the mercy of the boy.  
With a bitter smile, Yoh thought that it would not make any difference if he was to be killed by Lee Feng or if he would die shortly after killing him because of the bleeding.  
A rattle resounded near his ears, but he did not move his gaze from Lee Feng.

It was Xing.

The boy, at that sound, shuddered, and for several seconds, he seemed to want to turn towards his right-hand man, but he did not.  
Even that one tiny hesitation, however, made Yoh understand that Lee Feng had still a lot of things to learn about this kind of "work".  
"He will die...," said Yoh, with a calm voice, alluding to Xing, who was wheezing at their back.  
"You will die first!"  
"Killing me is useless for your aim, because it will only reinforce your pride made of lies."

"You, shut up, bastard! You killed my sister..."  
"For which you don't really give a damn," Yoh stressed, without any particular tone in his voice.

He knew it, and even Lee Feng knew it. The women, in Lee's family, were not taken into consideration, if not as anything but a bargaining good to conclude agreements and mergers with other families, through marriages of convenience.

Lee Feng was 11 years old when his sister died, and he met her a very few times in his life. Because _he was the_ _heir_,_ and she was less then nothing_. A tool.  
"You kidnapped and killed my sister!" the boy repeated, stubbornly, "and I will take your disgusting life, for which I paid Liu FeiLong with my entire arm's route in China."  
A stab of pain struck Yoh's chest and a sad light passed through his feverish eyes, a light that somewhat annoyed Lee Feng, but that had nothing to do with him.

So FeiLong asked for something that was of no real interest for the Baishe, but that could be used to bother Asami very much.

Yoh had hoped that at least FeiLong's obsession ended but, evidently, FeiLong was not able to forget Asami, and his death, as though the _Law of Retribution,_ would give the leader of the Baishe a new weapon against the Japanese, which was the right punishment for Yoh, after all.

The click of Lee Feng's trigger made him come to reality again, and he looked at the boy with a tired air.  
"You know very well that your father was the one who killed her ...," Yoh said, wearily.

"Shut up, I said, damned traitor!" The gun in Lee's hands slightly trembled, but Yoh could clearly see that his desire for self-preservation still had not allowed him to admit the truth, namely that Lee had been bred of lies and lead to believe and idolize someone who does not deserve it.

For years, the boy had looked at himself in the mirror, and saw his father, yet always afraid to face the reality of who his father really was, and perhaps, of discovering that they were both just the same.  
"I did not kidnap her. We loved each other, and before having to marry someone, who considered her nothing but a tool to conclude a deal with your father, we escaped and we married. When your father killed her, she was pregnant with our son …." Everything Yoh had said had been delivered with a voice that was calm and composed. Yoh was not a man of many words, nor a man of retaliation.

When Qiu Yue and their child died, Yoh had begun to become "nothing", disappearing from this world, and all that it was and all that it held.

Asami, who had met him dumped in a dirty alley in Hong Kong 9 years ago, had pulled Yoh out from his dead life, seeing in him, only the gods know , something worthy to live. Something of _value_.  
He gave a purpose to a life that, from then on, had a single aim: gratitude and loyalty for Asami Ryuichi.

And, indirectly, made Yoh regain a real life, next to FeiLong.

His very breathe.  
The more Yoh shared his life with the leader of the Baishe, indeed, the more he was tortured by that fire that shone in FeiLong's amethyst eyes.

He watched those dull eyes coming back to shine with life, and hunger, and strength.

He watched FeiLong fighting, and suffering, and ripping the pain and apathy that kept him locked up more than the bars of that jail.

Although the reasons were revenge, despair and love for another man, watching FeiLong struggle to free himself in ache, like a chrysalis, and seeing the wings of that marvelous and venomous butterfly blaze in the sun, Yoh couldn't help but fall in love with him.

The more Yoh realized that he loved the leader of the Baishe, the more the rift inside him, between his duties and his feelings, became piercing and harrowing.  
Yoh loved this desperation, as well. Because he wanted to have something to aim for, because he wanted to have a desire. Although his aim and his desire were in opposition ... although now this aim no longer had any importance, and this desire would not be realized.  
He did not regret anything.  
"I told you to shut up...," the gun in the hands of Lee Feng was dropping slowly, and to Yoh, it was as though he could almost hear the crackling of the boy's absurd stubbornness in not wanting to see the truth was crumbling.  
"And you, like him, for this _honour, _are letting the one that is really important to you die, the only father, the only _friend_ you have ever had."

Yoh had barely finished the sentence, when a black veil began to fall on his eyes.

He heard the metallic noise when Lee Feng's gun had fallen on the ground, and the boy's steps towards Xing, who was collapsed the ground, as well. Yoh's legs staggered and he found himself kneeling on the ground.  
"I'm sorry, but I cannot help you if I want to save Xing..."

Yoh seemed to have heard the voice of Lee Feng uttering those words, right before he slid, face down, on to the floor.  
Yoh hoped that at least Lee would be able to save the person he cared for.  
"FeiLong-sama...," he whispered, before closing his eyes.

_The Epilogue will be poste soon!  
Silke_chan_


	9. Chapter 9

**Epilogue **

The wound's lips were still rough under his fingers and touching them still caused him pain, while the dark red of the tincture of iodine made it feel like it was open and still bleeding.  
The nurse, a tiny and pretty girl, applied a square piece of gauze on the slash and then passed the bandages around the well-built chest of the man.  
The girl was sorry that this would be the last time she could see him, since the man would be discharged the next morning.

It had been almost ten days that she had been taking care of his wound and, despite that, she had exchanged only a very few words with that fascinating and silent man, and she liked him a lot.  
She blushed slightly and sighed imperceptibly.

The man, however, seemed to not notice it, he always seemed so engrossed in something.  
"Do you need something else, sir?" she asked.  
"No, thanks for your kindness. You can go now," was the courteous, but cold, reply.  
"Have a good night," the nurse replied, with a disappointed air, while she gathered her things and headed towards the exit.  
Once near the door, however, she turned as if she had remembered something.  
"Yoh-sama's friend called the reception yesterday to ask for news about your health," she said, with a thoughtful air. "I told him that I could give him Yoh-sama's direct number ..."  
"I'm sure that he already knows it," said the man, gazing at her with eyes that, as always, seemed to not lay on her, but go right through her, looking at who knows what, somewhere, far away.  
"Ah ... I understand ...," said the nurse. "I am going, then...," she added, deciding not to ask why, then, did the man not call right here in the room, instead, every two days, at the reception desk.  
Yoh buttoned his shirt, setting the folds of the cloth, and then he headed towards one of the chairs in the room, but, bypassing the armchair, he sat down on a stool instead and lit a cigarette.  
Ten days had passed from the evening that he was injured by Lee Feng's man.  
He had awakened a couple of days later, in a luxury hospital room.  
He did not have the faintest ideas where it was exactly located. He only knew that it was in the countryside around Y. city, and out of Hong Kong.  
It seemed to be one of those clinics for flawed rich men who came there to discretely take care of their various addictions to drugs, alcohol and whatever.  
In addition, there was someone who was constantly getting information about his condition.  
Asami? Lee Feng?  
No, he knew that it was FeiLong.

The leader of the Baishe was doing what he wanted Asami to do for him seven years earlier, and if that had been the case, perhaps this sad and tragic story would never have existed.  
Yoh asked himself several times if he could expect something from FeiLong, if he could "ask" for more.  
And, without false illusions, he had answered to himself a definite no, he could not.  
FeiLong, rather than punish him, such as a spy like him deserved, had spared his life.  
Then he had warned him about the dagger impending on his head, namely Lee Feng, as well.  
As if that was not enough, and Yoh was certain of this, it was FeiLong that had helped him by kicking the asses of the commandos that were after him. There by, giving him a fair chance of getting out alive from his duel with Lee Feng.  
And, in the end, the leader of the Baishe had saved his life by bringing him here.  
Yoh looked at the cigarette, now reduced to a heap of ash on the floor.  
He turned towards the window.  
The rain had fallen quietly all day long, and now, in the dusk, it was just a muffled noise behind the mirror of the night.  
January was unusually cold and rainy this year.  
Yoh stood up and headed to the fireplace located in his hospital room, which seemed to be more of a hotel suite, and stroked the fire.  
The tongues of the fire danced, blazing before his eyes, and his face softened.  
Once he had a fireplace like this one, and nearby it, Qiu Yue often curled up into an old and worn armchair, embroidering a sheet for a cradle.  
Something, which seemed to have happened a million years ago… or maybe it had never really happened at all?

For a long, single moment, the fire blurred into his eyes, but soon the sorrow sewed up again into his marbled features.  
"Yoh?"  
The man got up suddenly, and the wound on his side caused a lively pain to come alive, which felt as though a red-hot blade was sticking firmly into his flesh.  
Retaining a gasp, Yoh bit his lip.  
FeiLong was before him, and his heart seemed to want to escape from his chest.

Yoh swallowed a couple of times.  
"FeiLong-sama…," he whispered.

Dear gods, how beautiful he was, a beauty to which you cannot become used to and a grace that was reborn new and stronger every time you laid your eyes on it.

A beauty to which memory cannot do justice, because the grace and wildness that coexists within FeiLong cannot be pictured in your mind as stunningly as they are in reality.  
"You are here…," said the older man.  
"I'm here," FeiLong replied.  
With a strange sense of fear in his heart, Yoh could not help but reach out, lengthen his arm and take in his hand a loose lock of FeiLong's obsidian hair, which was scented of cinnamon and green tea.

The older man was not sure, how the relationship between him and FeiLong would be from now on, or if there would be one at all.

The leader of the Baishes eyes seemed so far away while he was watching Yoh's hand gently playing with his long silken locks, and then he saw Yoh drowned his hand into the soft and black mass, and pulled his head toward him until their lips were touching.)

His lips were cold as ice, while the older man caressed them with his own.

"I have no right to expect this from you, right?" Yoh whispered, blowing those words directly on FeiLong's lips.

The younger man raised his eyes to meet the deep black ones of the other.

They were so close that FeiLong felt as though he was almost able to look beyond them and inside the soul of this man that, now, was letting his hair slip from his hand, strand by strand, like petals of a flower, and whose gaze was now covered with a soft pain.

Yoh's eyes, with discretion, were closing to veil his sorrow.

"Do not lower your gaze, Yoh ...," FeiLong whispered, and it was an order.

FeiLong wanted to see that sorrow, that morbid, shy sorrow, in the eyes of a man he thought for years to be indifferent.

These feelings, for him.

They looked at one another for a few seconds, and then FeiLong shifted to the left and went away, going to sit on one of the armchairs near the fireplace.  
"I need to talk to you, Yoh," he said.  
Yoh approached and remained standing before him, almost at attention, as was his custom.  
"Sit down Yoh, you're not a member of Baishe, and it is no longer necessary for you to behave like you are."  
The older man nodded, feeling the whole weight of that observation on his shoulders.  
"You are not a member of Baishe."  
Another of the many things that he was no more a part of.  
He sat politely in front of FeiLong, with a discomfort that could not be seen through his impassive expression, as always.  
The Triad leader brushed aside, with a distracted gesture, a loose lock behind his right ear, which was his usual habit before starting a speech.  
Yoh smiled a melancholic smile.  
There were many things that he knew about FeiLong: minute things, everyday gestures and private expressions that perhaps FeiLong himself was unaware of.  
Such as, the gesture the long-haired man just did, for example, or when his lips were half-opened and slightly caressed by the tip of his middle finger, when he was pondering over something, or how he languidly intertwined a lock of hair around his fingers, while reading a book, when he was certain that no one could see him.  
"In Hong Kong no one has precise news about your fate... the same as Lee Feng seems to be certain of your death." FeiLong's voice made Yoh come back to reality, "This situation is very comfortable even for the tranquility inside the Baishe."  
Yoh frowned.  
"Are you warning me to not return to Hong Kong …?" Yoh whispered, seemingly within himself and into his expression, although it seemed not to have changed at all, there was a new determined look that appeared.  
"I think it's the best thing for ..."  
"No!" said the older man, rising up, grabbing FeiLong's forearms and then pinning him onto the armchair.

Their faces were now very close.  
While the fury in his eyes was waning into a strange sadness, the surprise in FeiLong's grew into anger, Yoh said again, softly, "No…," but he did not let go of the younger man.  
"Do not dare to raise your voice with me," FeiLong hissed, with an offended and furious glance, "I'm not here to propose a negotiation, I am here to give you an order!"  
FeiLong's eyes darted, urgently, and the delicate nostrils vibrated into the effort to breathe properly and regain his control.

"I am not a member of the Baishe, as you said, therefore, there is no longer any reason for me to behave as if I would be one, as you said. So I don't need to obey your orders."  
There was no anger in Yoh's words.

The older man placed a knee on the seat of the armchair, at the side of FeiLong's leg, and was practically sitting astride on him.  
FeiLong was in disbelief, he was stuck on that chair by the weight of the other man, who looked at him with an indecipherable glance.  
He hated not being able to understand what he was thinking, as he hated that, on the contrary, Yoh seemed to be quite capable of seeing through him.  
"Let go of me, don't you know who you are?!" firmly repeated the leader of Baishe, trying to give a kick at Yoh's side.  
FeiLong seemed to see a flash of pain crossing those dark eyes and he felt Yoh's hands loosen there grasp on his forearms, sliding along the arms, and then resting on his hands while Yoh slid to the floor, kneeling.  
The hands of the older man dropped on his lap, as if a strange weariness had possession of him.  
Only at that moment, did FeiLong realized that he could have hit the older man's still fresh wound, and before he rationally realized it, FeiLong was crouching before him, taking his hands.  
"Yoh, are you alright? Did I hit ..."  
"No FeiLong-sama," replied the other, with a slight smile.  
Yoh would have wanted to be able to say to the man he loved that he actually did hit him, causing a terrible pain, yet not with his kick, but only with that simple sentence.  
"Don't you know who you are?"  
FeiLong tried to get up, but was restrained by Yoh, who kept his hands tight in his own.  
The leader of Baishe laid his eyes on Yoh and himself, and it was really strange being there, kneeling one in front of the other, hand in hand, but it was absolutely not unpleasant, to be truthful, it actually was quite the opposite.  
But it was something completely new for him.  
The long-haired man lifted his head to meet Yoh's face, who looked pensive.  
"Was it is because of Asami that you claimed Lee family's route?"  
The leader of the Baishe looked at him, surprised by the fact that Yoh knew, but soon he realized that it was probably Lee Feng who gave the news to Yoh.  
"You do not understand, Yoh, I wanted ..."  
"Do you want another war? I admit that, thanks to Lee Feng, now you have a good card and can create many problems for Asami, but... do you want to risk losing everything again, for someone who...," the sentence remained poised between them.  
Everything had become colder in the room when he started talking about Asami.

Yoh grit his teeth.  
There were many things that he would like to say to FeiLong, but for him to express what he felt was always so difficult.  
He only wanted to tell him that although his heart belongs to FeiLong, he would give him up, if it would be for the sake of someone who could make him happy, who would return FeiLong's love, but Asami ...  
"You will never stop loving him ...," he said, and it was not a question, it was simply a statement of fact.  
"Oh, Yoh...," FeiLong sighed, brushing away, with long tapering fingers, a lock of hair that covered the brow of the older man, "I actually have no idea of what love is ..."  
Yoh shook his head as if to say that it was not true, and then he tried to get up, but the long-haired man was faster than him, and sat astride his lap, preventing him from moving.  
"Stop talking about Asami, okay?" he whispered into his ear, then went down to kiss his neck with light touch.  
Yoh remained astonished for a moment. FeiLong was giving off mixed signals since they had met in his small apartment, 15 days before.  
Sometimes he seemed to be trying to get closer to him, and other times he seemed as though he was still running behind the ghost of Asami Ryuichi..., but there was not something that could still be so important, while FeiLong's tongue was drawing spirals of sublime pleasure along your neck.

Yoh realized immediately that he was no longer able, not any more, to fight the feeling of unabashed desire that flowed through his body.  
"FeiLong-sama ...," he said, and a shiver ran along the back of the younger man when he heard that voice, so warm and hoarse, lost in his hair.  
"I want to feel it again, Yoh ..."  
"What ..."  
"Your love on my skin."  
"Anything you wish for ..."  
Yoh's lips went to caress the delicate earlobe of the younger man, while his hands were unbuttoning his shirt with slow, nerve-racking, movements.  
FeiLong was there, with his eyes half-closed, his pupils out of focus and he saw only the shadow of his dark lashes against the background of the red flames from the fireplace, that were dancing near them.  
The hands of the younger man moved ceaselessly under the fabric of Yoh's shirt, rubbing his back with almost imperceptible touches, which was terribly exciting.  
FeiLong felt so good... a feeling of total contentment, and everything that he wanted at that moment was right there. He was sitting on Yoh's lap, feeling their erections caressing each other from under the smooth silk of his pants, and he wanted to close his eyes and enjoy what the older man was giving to him.  
Letting him hold the reins, and...  
"Ah … Yoh, yes ...," he whispered, biting his lower lip when he felt the other's mouth closing around his nipple and his teeth biting it gently.  
Yoh lifted his eyes toward the man he loved, and met FeiLong's opening slowly, with a questioning air.

Two pupils of indigo velvet were now looking at him disappointedly, because he had stopped his "job".  
The older man could not do anything against his languid and almost painful desires that flowed like electricity, in his every fiber.  
"Yoh…?" FeiLong called him with a breathless voice and a cat like glare, while intertwining his fingers behind his waist.  
The beauty of the man before him was shaking his senses like violin strings.  
His throat couldn't help but reduce to crumbs in front of those eyes and from the sound of that voice, now low and full of lust, which was calling him.  
How could he believe, seven years before, that he was able to resist him?  
Which man, if alive, could dare to resist this beauty without having to be transformed into a salt statue because of his arrogance?  
He closed his eyes and felt FeiLong's hand on his chest, his lips on his neck.  
"I have to punish your distraction...," said the leader of Baishe, murmuring against the sensitive skin just below the ear of the other, then going to bite, with very little kindness, the point where the neck bends.

He then sucked greedily on the red area that had arisen. Satisfied with the mark he had left, FeiLong laughed quietly.  
"FeiLong sama..."  
"Finish undressing me, Yoh ...," said the other, standing up on his knees to facilitate the task.  
Yoh with his hands trembling with desire, now guided by his senses and not by any glimmer of reason, , started unfastening FeiLong's pants, making them slip down along FeiLong's slender legs, freeing his cock, which stood out proud a few inches from Yoh's mouth.  
Yoh's lips were ready for their coveted prize, when the man was stopped by FeiLong's hands that gently grasped his face, and instead, sat down again on Yoh's lap, and brought his lips to his own.  
"Not so fast... We have a lot of time. Kiss me!" FeiLong said, while his hands slid Yoh's shirt down from his shoulders.  
While they joined their lips greedily, and their tongues were interwoven in a tireless dancing, tasting, licking, feeling, the long-haired man unzipped the other's pants, and his long fingers were discovering inside them.

Despite the desire of both men becoming increasingly unbearable, every caress, every kiss, every touch was prolonged to an excess because Yoh needed to feel FeiLong leaning in to his touch again and again, and because the younger man needed to feel the mix of love and desire that Yoh was giving him.

FeiLong was willowy and graceful in sex: his hands, his arms and his legs moved as following an ancient dance.  
The long-haired man was now flat on his back, feeling the warm caress of the soft, precious carpet under him, his hair like a halo around his head, like petals of a dark flower.  
Yoh was above him, kneeling between his legs, bending down on him and intent in playing with the younger man's navel.  
"Yoh...," there was almost a note of pain in his voice.  
"Yes, FeiLong sama."  
"I… I cannot take this any longer... I'll go mad now if you don't..."  
"I'll do whatever you want," said the other, with a wriggle of evil in the eyes that made the long-haired man wince.  
"No, I want to know what you want, Yoh," he said, when the older man rose to kiss his lips.  
"I want to be inside you."  
A slight laugh, like the whir of a sparrow, escaped from the lips of the leader of the Baishe.  
"You should not be so composed in a moment like this, Yoh, you can simply say that you want to fuck me." he continued, amused.  
Yoh shook his head slightly, glaring at his purple eyes, "I wanted to say exactly what I said, FeiLong-sama..."  
The leader of Baishe gently passed the tip of his forefinger on Yoh's lips, slightly swollen by their endless love fights.  
"You were talking about sex, weren't you?" he asked then, going down with his finger along the neck of his lover, and caressing his chest with the back of the hand, before sliding it along the other's body, then up to his hips.  
Impertinent fingers went to caress the firm ass of the older man and then it went to rest on the small of his back, nestling Yoh even more toward himself.  
He wanted to feel his hard member against his belly.  
The shadow of a smile twirled on Yoh's face, who nodded: "Yes, but not only".  
"And me? Am I inside you?" FeiLong murmured, and an imperceptible flushing for a moment reddened his silky cheeks.  
"Every moment of my days," was the reply.  
"Then take me. Right here, right now. I want to have you inside me. Everything of you...," whispered the long-haired man, with a velvet voice.  
Yoh closed his eyes. That sentence alone gave meaning to every breath he had taken until now in his life.  
FeiLong felt a shiver whipping from the inside when the tongue of his lover went to caress his entrance, again, and again, and again and then slip inside.

FeiLong moaned, and opened himself up for more, giving himself to someone completely, for the first time since that terrible night of 7 years before. The night that taught him that love could torn you and easily become hatred, and thta sex is a way to dominate. A lesson that now he is going to forget.  
Yoh lifted the younger man's leg, kissing the inside of his thighs and then he raised his gaze towards FeiLong, to see eyes full of fire focusing on him.

For Yoh the waiting also became unbearable, and so he finally began to push to enter his lover's body.  
With both of the man's legs securely resting on his shoulders, he drove himself in slowly, never wanting to hurt in any way the most precious creature in this world, and then, after several moments, he began to move.  
He held FeiLong's erection in his hand and pumped in rhythm with his thrusts, using a thumb to rub the pre-come coated slit. FeiLong's muscles contracted sporadically around him, sending even more jolts of pleasure up his spine.

They then shared a passionate kiss, one where Yoh was able to say all he wanted to say without words.

Yoh's tempo increased as his release drew near, and a litany of intimate Chinese dialect fell from his lips, especially the name of the man bringing him so much pleasure.

FeiLong's lithe body glistened with a light sheen of sweat as he drove his hips up to meet each of Yoh's thrusts. He could tell by the way his body trembled that he was just as close as Yoh was.

They both climaxed in tandem, a low moan leaving both their throats. ~

…

A strong and low noise blasted in the ears of the long-haired man, and his eyes suddenly opened.  
Thunder.  
FeiLong groaned, nestling even more against Yoh's warm and strong body.  
It rained again, and once again, the noise of the storm was the background of his awakening in Yoh's arms.  
He raised his eyes toward him. How had it happened that they now were in the bed?  
At some point, his senses had left him, overwhelmed by the pleasure, and he did not remember anything.  
Obviously, Yoh had taken him there, in his arms.  
How irritating. And outrageous... and he smiled within himself at this thought, that would have been his until a few weeks ago, and that now seemed so silly.  
"FeiLong sama, are you OK?"  
Yoh's voice, warm by sleep, caught his attention, and after a small kiss on the man's chest, he lifted his face toward him.  
"I'm in bliss...," he whispered, while his hand went to caress the man's hip.  
"So why do you not want me to come back to Hong Kong, and why are you already stubbornly following the shadow of Asami. I am not him. I know that, but I..."  
"Sssst ...," FeiLong gently stopped him, then leaned up on his elbows, in order to have a better look into the older man eyes.  
"Yoh, the past cannot be deleted. Nor regarding the Baishe or Asami. Even if everyone believes that I'm the Baishe, in reality the line between ruling it and being crushed by it is very small, and you know this better than anyone else. Now, you and the Baishe are incompatible, even if the leader of Baishe ... even if I ..."  
"If you...?" Asked the other, while imprisoning the supple waist of FeiLong in his arms.  
The younger man smiled.  
"Even if I want you.," he made a little break, then continued, "Lee's arms traffic route is yours," he added, all of a sudden.  
For a moment, Yoh did not understand FeiLong's words, because the change of topic was so sudden, and because what he had just said seemed absurd.  
"Mine?"  
"As you see, you must not worry about me running after Asami. My thoughts are elsewhere. It is him, now, that must be worry about you."  
The hold around FeiLong's waist dissolved slowly, and Yoh's eyes left his face, lost beyond the window, out in the storm.  
FeiLong leaned his head on the other's chest. He felt the man's heart beat a little fast. And for once, he could say that he knows exactly what Yoh was thinking.  
"You think I'm asking you for evidence of your fidelity. To prove to me that you are at my side against my enemies. Against Asami, right? "  
Yoh's right hand was now lost in the hair of the man laying on his body, and he kissed his forehead.  
FeiLong continued: "I cannot blame you for this. It would be so me, wouldn't it? In the past seven years you have seen me so many times ask for loyalty evidence from the people around me, and to feel almost a perverse pleasure when the facts gave reason to my belief that it did not exist."  
"I will do what you ask me, just, I ask that you allow me to use fair methods"

"No kidnapping of young japanese men to use against him, ok! " FeiLong replied, amused, but son he became serious again.  
"I did some research, and found that Asami saved your life, Yoh, right?"  
"He has, FeiLong sama ..."  
"Yoh, you can do what you want with the arms traffic route. It's yours. You can try to make it grow, you can try to climb the underworld fighting Asami, or finding an agreement with him. You can give the route to him, if you want. This would not change anything between us. Is not my gift, Yoh, nor a way to test you. Because it was yours, yours from the beginning, since the time that we never knew each other. It was before Asami. Although, this cannot return to you what you lost, it is right that it is yours now "  
Yoh widened his eyes, suddenly realizing everything, and nestled the beautiful man that was lying near to him..., and after so many years, so many that he almost could not count them all, he wept.  
FeiLong searched for his lips, and brushed them slowly with his own.

_It was cold that winter, and the tiny room that was their "new" home, for a few days now, was wet and cold. __Qiu Yue blew on her cold hands, and looked at the tiny ring of gold on her left ring finger, blushing.  
She still could not believe that she had the courage to escape, leaving her house..., but she had never repented. She loved him, and now he was her husband. And at this moment, she had known something important, and as soon as he came back from work, she would tell him._

_She caressed her belly, blushing even more. She was sorry that he had to work at the port, in the middle of the night, with this cold. Since she was a young girl, she knew that her father wanted to use her to reach agreements with some of his"friends", offering her, and her dowry, namely Lee's arms traffic routes, to his future son-in-law... just to gain more from him in the future.  
Now that she was married, her husband would be able to keep that business, her husband deserved it, but what he wanted was her, despite this could likely cost him life.  
But this did not matter, she was happy, and him too._

_And soon their children would bring them other happiness.  
A small tear slipped, impudent, along the cheek of the girl.  
She would have liked not having to hide their love, their family that was growing.  
She would like to be able to give herself and her dowry to her husband, as per tradition... maybe one day ... maybe one day ..._

"I want another thousand nights like this, Yoh..."  
"Every night of my life, if you want, FeiLong,"

**The end.**


End file.
